Just What I Needed
by potter-shan-fan
Summary: BLACKWATER! Set at the end of New Moon, after Bella has left her house with Alice to go and save Edward. Jacob is heart broken, but forced to go to Harry Clearwater's funeral. There he sees Leah, and before he knows what's happening, everything changes.
1. I can't believe she left me for a LEECH!

**Disclaimer: No, I'm not Stephanie Meyer (Shocker, I know. But if I was, this**** or something very similar would have happened at the end of New Moon) So I own none of this. Just the plot.**

**A/N: Alright, I knowww that I should be updating my Harry Potter fic, but you guys just got an update a few days ago, so come on, be open minded!**** And I had this idea in my head for a while now, and ****it wouldn't go away, so I couldn't resist adding it! Don't send me to the Gallows just yet ... Relax, I'll still update the L&J fic. That is first priority. This is sort of a side project i couldn't help myself from adding. So chill.**

**Summary:**

Set near the end of New Moon, right after Bella has left her house with Alice to go and save Edward. Jacob is heart broken, but forced to go to Harry Clearwater's funeral. There he sees Leah, and before he knows what's happening, everything changes. It all happens so fast ... Can Jake cope and maybe even find happiness with Leah? BLACKWATER! If you don't like it, then you might want to stop reading right now, and press the little "Back" button at the top of the page. But I still reccomend you give it a try!

**Enjoy.  
**

She's gone. She left me. For him. No, for _it_. For that damn bloodsucker! She chose almost certain freaking death over me. Damn it, do I mean that little to her?

Why did that stupid female bloodsucker have to come back? They already ruined her life once, and now they wanted to do it again, just when she was getting better. She was going off to die for the very leech that ruined her life. The thoughts raged in my mind as, for the first time since the beginning, I lost control and exploded into a wolf against my will.

I dashed out of the house, for fear that if I stayed, I'd put my fist through the wall. Once I was in the forest, I ran around aimlessly, attacking trees, trying to let out my anger.

_She left me for a __goddamn bloodsucker!_

Then a voice entered my head.

Sam.

I let all my thoughts pour into him, of her leaving with the leech, of the conversation I'd barely understood, even the betrayal and rage that I felt. He remained silent for a while, drinking it all in. I could feel his relief that the bloodsucker – Alice – had left. I couldn't care less.

_Come to the funeral, Jacob. You are needed here. If Bella has gone, it is her own choice.__ There is nothing more you can do. Come to the funeral._

I growled. I didn't want to be around anyone.

_Your brothers need you. Think of Seth._

I felt a wave of guilt, but that was soon crushed by the other explosive emotions coursing through me.

_You will come to the funeral and fill you duties to your Tribe and your friends. _He'd made it an order in the double timbre of the Alpha, so I couldn't do anything about it. My legs moved on their own, taking me to the funeral. I quickly snatched my clothes in my mouth and began running in defeat.

_Damn it, Sam!_

_Seth needs you right now. _The thought was softer, gentler. I knew he was right. _Billy needs you. Do right by them. You are the only one Seth feels is a friend in this troubling time for him. You helped him most when he first phased. Come on, Jacob._

I groaned and began running faster towards the funeral, an invisible hand pulling me in. I kept running in a blur, too fast to be seen. When I neared the place where I knew it was going on, I phased back and pulled on my clothes. The service had already started. I found an empty seat at the back and sat there, ignoring Sam, Embry and Quil beckoning to me quietly. They stopped, and left me alone with my thoughts. Smart of them.

Where was Bella now? At the airport? No, it hadn't been that long. It took longer than that, didn't it? And then, what? She'd go off to Italy, or wherever that leech went to kill himself, and she'd just get herself killed. Ugh, just the thought hurt! How she had made this choice, I'd never understand. Damn it, I didn't want to understand! She should've let him die. He deserved it, for what he did to her. Heat coursed through me as I thought about everything the bloodsuckers had done. About every time I had seen her holding herself, like she was about to fall apart. The image of her laying there as Sam found her.

I felt like ripping someone's throat out, I was so pissed. I felt the now-familiar trembles running up my hands. No, that wasn't good. _Focus, Jake!_ I told myself. _Focus._ I was better at keeping calm than the others, but that was not much of a comfort. Sam was right, Seth needs you. Billy needs you. Calm down and focus.

I looked up to find my father. There, he was going up to the coffin. Who was that pushing him? Oh, right. Seth. Poor kid. Poor Seth, and Sue, and Leah.

Oh, God. What was I thinking? They must be so upset. They really did need me. I wanted to be there for them, and yet a part of me didn't really care that much. The same part of me that had died when Bella left with the leech. The part that would die yet again, and kill just about every _other_ part of me too, when she died. Nevertheless, I got up and walked over to my dad and Seth, something i assumed to be the command of the Alpha still compelling me, though it was partially my own choice. Both of them had tears streaking their faces. I touched Seth's shoulder and he backed away, nodding slightly. I grabbed Billy's chair and he looked up at me and gave a sad smile. He looked at his friend and put a flower on his chest.

"Goodbye, old friend," he mumbled. I pushed him away, towards Sue. She was crying on Seth's shoulder. Poor kid. He'd only just phased for the first time three weeks ago, and it had been just two weeks since we got him to phase back. He was going through enough. I could see his hands trembling, and I went beside him and put my hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him. He nodded appreciatively and the shaking slowed, before stopping completely. He was showing incredible control.

_Bella must have reached the airport by now. She and the female bloodsucker __are probably buying tickets right now. Flying to her death._

I shuddered, pushing the thought away. _C'mon, Jake. Focus._

I looked around for Leah. She had just come back to La Push yesterday, for the funeral. I hadn't seen her in ages, but when we were younger and our dads shoved us together when they went fishing, we used to have fun messing with my sisters, making fun of Seth. That was before Sam had left her for Emily and she became a complete pain to be around. I tried to focus on the earlier memories of her. She was at her father's coffin. Tears were falling thick and fast. She sobbed and turned away, coming towards the rest of her family. I felt the urge to go up to her and just comfort her.

She looked up and, for the briefest second, our eyes met. And in that instant, everything else disappeared. Bella and her Bloodsuckers were like a distant dream. My hand fell from Seth's shoulder and I stared at her. Heat flooded through me, and not the same heat as the anger, it was a new heat.

It was glowing.

Everything inside me came undone as I stared at her face, long after she had looked away and stood hugging her mother. I felt different, yet somehow the same. It felt like everything that made me who I was had slipped away, cut off from me like thread. I wasn't left hanging, though. They were replaced by a new string. Millions of strings. Not strings, even. More like steel cables. These held me on the Earth now, not gravity, and all of them tied me to her. To Leah.

It scared the hell out of me.

I backed away, forgetting where I was, and what I was doing. I ran. Just ran, and kept running. I don't know when exactly I phased, but one moment I was running through the forest on two legs, and the next I was on all fours, paws thudding on the ground hard and fast as I ran. A small part of me registered with irritation that I'd ripped my clothes again, but I hardly cared. The farther I got, the slower I went, the mysterious cables keeping me from going too far, from leaving her behind.

I skidded to a halt and turned. I didn't want to go back, but I couldn't _not_ go back. I thought about going to the funeral, but I had no clothes. I growled at myself for my stupidity. Then suddenly another voice was in my head. Someone else had phased, I could tell.

_What the hell are you doing? Why did you run away like that? _ Sam. Of course. Why is he always there when I want to be alone? He would be angry I ran out on everyone. Before I could conceal any of the thoughts running through my mind, he saw it all.

_You … you'__ve imprinted. On Leah… Jacob! What did you just do? _

I growled. That was pretty daft. He knew better than any of us that it was involuntary.

_Ugh. You're right. Where are you?_

I showed him an image of where I was and next moment he was standing there in front of me, a giant black wolf, a head taller than me.

_What the hell was that, Sam? What just happened to me?_

_You imprinted. On Leah. You must know that._ He sounded stiff, almost angry.

_I know, but … Holy crap. What the hell.__ It can't be! It's … Leah. I - I'm not ... _Confused as I was, I could also see in his head the mixed feelings he was having.

Happiness, that Leah could finally move on, that she wouldn't hurt anymore. That she had someone.

Worry, that I would hurt her. He was certain, after what had happened with Emily.

Fear, that she'd know the truth now and –

_Stop it. I do not need a replay of all my thoughts!_ I felt the anger pouring off of him, and then I saw it. The one thought that he had been keeping from all of us since we had first phased.

_You still love Leah._

_I – no. That is not it. We can never be. I am with Emily now. She is my everything._

_But … you still care for Leah, don't you? I can see it._

_She will always mean a lot to me. And I did love her once. It has always pained me, what I did to her. I, I am glad she will have someone now. But first, we must talk. You know little about imprinting. You could hurt her._

_Sorry. I – I__ just … I'm going to go now. I need to think. Alone._

_Jacob, n –_

Before he could give me an order I would have to obey, I phased, not caring I was naked. I ran home without looking back at Sam. It hurt to be so far from her. I put on some new clothes and ran like hell back to the funeral. I needed to talk to her.

The funeral was over by then. Where was she? Even as the thought came to me, before I even looked, I knew where she was. Something was pulling me to her. I walked into the forest, looking around, sniffing for her scent, following the pull, so similar to that of gravity, yet so much stronger, and I found her.

She sat in a little clearing in the far side of the forest, on her own, hugging her legs to her chest, with her head on her knees. She was crying.

More than anything in the world, I wanted to reach out and hug her. To tell her it was alright. I stepped out of the trees and she looked up in shock, quickly wiping her eyes.

"Wh – what are you doing here?" she snapped, trying to look as though she hadn't just been crying. I walked over to her and sat beside her.

"I just came to make sure you were alright."

**A/N: Well, there it is, the first chapter of my first real Fic. The HP one doesn't count, because it's just reading the book, no original plotline or anything. And the other Oneshot doesn't either, coz it's a oneshot! Tell me if it sucks, and I won't bother continuing. Even though I really want to, and I already have the next, like, five chapters planned out in my head! Let me know!! REVIEW!!!  
**

**Much love,**

**PSF**

**x  
**


	2. Kid Sure Does Talk A Lot

**A/N: Updated already! Kudos to anyone who looked at my profile and knew this would be up within the week! I'm actually early!**

**Enjoy!**

**x**

"I just came to make sure you were alright."

She sniffed a bit. "How did you know where I was?" Then, before I could answer, before I even knew what was going on, she broke down into fresh tears. Without thinking, I pulled her into my arms and let her cry herself dry on my shoulder, gently patting her head.

"It's okay," I whispered in her ear. "Shh. He's in a better place now. He lived an amazing life. Sh, it's okay."

I could tell that it had all built up inside of her. That maybe she hadn't cried in a long time, not even after Sam left her. That she hadn't shown her tears to anyone, not even her friends. Now she was letting it all out. These weren't _just_ tears for her father. I simply held on to her, hugging her, giving her a shoulder to cry on. When she was done, she looked up into my eyes and my heart skipped a beat. Her eyes were so red. I wiped away the last of her tears with my thumb and smiled at her, and then I just hugged her. She kept her head on my shoulder, and didn't say a word. She was too proud for any of that. We just sat there. Who knows how long we were there for.

Finally, after it had been dark for a while, I looked down at her again and saw she was sleeping. I smiled. As much as I wanted to stay like that with her, I knew I couldn't. Her family would begin to worry soon, and they really didn't need any more of that. Not wanting to wake her up, I lifter her in my arms and proceeded to walk to her house. Her head was resting on my chest, and she looked so peaceful, for once.

It began to rain, and I tried to cover her with my body as I hurried back to her house, fearing that she would get cold. I knocked and Seth answered the door.

If he was surprised to see me carrying his sister, he didn't show it. He half-smiled at me and then stepped back so I could come in. "Put her in her room, I guess," he mumbled, and then led the way.

I thanked Seth and gently put her down on her bed, pulling blankets over her to warm her. I stepped back out and into the hall, where Seth was sitting on the couch, waiting for me. I sat beside him.

"How are you, kid?" I asked quietly.

"I – I've been better. But I'm alright, I guess. I just … I miss him."

"I know how you feel. It'll be alright, Seth. You'll all get through this. The pack will help you guys get through it. I promise."

Seth smiled appreciatively. "Thanks, Jake. You've always been a great guy."

We were quiet for a while, and then he broke the silence. "So, you've imprinted on my sister, huh?"

I stared at him. "How did –"

"Sam," he said simply.

"Oh, right."

More awkward silence followed. I kept turning around to look at the door to Leah's room. I wanted so badly to check on her, see if she was alright. Seth noticed.

"I don't know much about imprinting," he said hesitantly, "but from what I've seen, I guess it's hard to be away from her. You can go in there, if you want, man. Just - well, yeah."

"Thanks, Seth," I smiled, already getting up.

"Yeah. But, man, you know how to pick 'em. My sister? That's just weird. And you could totally do better," he said, trying to make a joke of it, the ghost of a smile playing on his lips. "Nice timing, too, though. But, ehm, seriously, I think you'd be, uh, good for her, you know. She was never really alright since Sam messed her over. I guess I'm … glad it's you." He smiled weakly.

Wow. Was he really just fourteen? He really cared for his sister. I smiled back at him.

"Leah's lucky," he said simply, before walking away to his own room. I followed him to the corridor and turned into Leah's room. I opened the door as quietly as possible, and then shut it silently behind me. I stayed where I was and looked at her. She looked beautiful.

I didn't stay in the room long. I could imagine what she'd say if anyone told her I'd been staring at her as she slept! That was just creepy… almost like a stalker. I lightly walked up to her side, pulled another blanket over her and stepped back out of her room. Back in the hall, I flopped down on the couch. As I lay there, tired yet unable to sleep, my thoughts from earlier in the day came back to me. It felt like it was from some distant past.

What must Bella be doing now? As I thought it, I was still worried about my best friend, but I was no longer filled with rage, and I didn't feel like rushing after her anymore. I was just worried. I didn't want to lose her. It would crush Charlie, and it would hurt me, too. Just not in the way it would have hurt me _before_. Even though she ran off after the bloodsucker, chose them over me, she would always be my best friend. I did not want her to get hurt. What I felt for Bella was nothing at all like what I now felt for Leah, but still, it would hurt to lose her. Or maybe she had always been lost to me, from the moment she met her leech. Was I lost too? Would I be, if she didn't come home - it still hurt to think it. Would I feel lost, or would Leah keep me grounded, with those metal cables that bound me to her ...

I thought about the whole imprinting business. It had all happened so fast that I never had a moment to stop and really just _think_ about it. I couldn't imagine not being here for Leah, and caring for her, and I was grateful that I was no longer pining for a girl who apparently didn't care for me, but I still felt a bit weird. I didn't like how my choice was taken from me. It was like when Sam made a command. Still, I was only too happy to follow this particular command.

I think I had always liked Leah a lot, more than I realized. It just never went anywhere because we were too young at first, and then she fell in love with Sam. And then I fell for Bella, and Sam broke her heart and she moved away. And then I phased. Guess we never really had the time. And now … I suppose it wasn't exactly against my will that I imprinted. At least it wasn't someone I hardly knew. If I had to imprint, I don't think there was anyone else I would have preferred. Although hadn't I wished time and again to imprint on Bella, when I first found out about the phenomenon?

Ugh, all this was driving me nuts. Too much thinking, too fast! I shook my head clear and lay more comfortably on the couch. I tried to force my brain to shut off, and before I knew it, I was being woken up by Seth, and not exactly in a gentle manner.

"Hey, get off me, Seth! What the heck?"

Seth grinned at me as he fell to the ground. He bounced right back up and grinned at me some more. "Who said you could spend the night?" he said, pretending to be angry. He laughed and added, "Mom nearly fainted when she saw you collapsed on the couch! – and you snore like a beast, by the way - She thought you'd been hurt or something, and then she thought _I_'d been hurt on a patrol, and she woke me up with all her yelling! I told her you'd crashed here 'cause you'd been on patrol and you were tired, and our place was closer. She didn't mind much, after she'd calmed down a bit."

"Uh, thanks kid, I guess. What time is it?" I asked, sitting up.

"Nine in the morning."

"Shoot! Billy's probably worried sick! I can't believe I –"

"Relax, Jake. I called last night. Told him everything. He said it's fine. I think he's actually happy you're over Bella!" Seth said, laughing. "I woulda told mom the truth too, but I figured you should do it. I don't really even understand it much, and so I thought … Well, anyway, I gotta go. Sam said there's a pack meeting about the whole Bella-going-to-Italy thing, and the Cullens possibly coming back and all that."

I nodded and got up, looking at Leah's room and then I sighed and turned for the door.

"She's sleeping, man. She woke up when mom started yelling, but she didn't ask many questions. Just sat there for a while and then went back to sleep. Oh, yeah, Sam said it's cool if you skip the meeting. He said you should probably, you know, talk. You know, to my mom, and to Leah. You can tell her now, by the way! Everything! It's been a pain hiding the werewolf thing from Leah! Now she can know, and not keep bugging me with her stupid questions! Alright, I'm off. And, er, good luck, I guess. It'll be cool having you around the house more often. See ya."

And with that he ran out of the house. Man that kid can talk.

I saw him burst out of his clothes, and then growl in irritation. He kept forgetting to take off the clothes before phasing. I shrugged and turned around. The house was pretty quiet without Seth's loud chatter. I sank back into the couch and sat there, waiting for Leah and her mom to wake up. I figured I'd talk to whoever got up first.

I didn't have to wait long. After about twenty minutes, Sue came out of her room. I got up and smiled awkwardly at her. She looked startled to see me there for a moment, but then must have remembered, and then nodded to me.

"Hello, Jacob," she said.

"Hi, Mrs. Clearwater," I mumbled, scratching the back of my head, suddenly nervous.

"Thank you for coming to – to the –" she sniffed, "f – funeral, yesterday. I'm s – sure he would have appreciated – " She couldn't continue. I reached out to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm really sorry for you loss. Harry was a really great guy. My dad always liked him a lot. If there's anything I can do, let me know."

"Thank you, Jacob, but it's alright. Are you f – feeling better? Seth said," she sniffed, "you were very tired last night. Did anything happen?"

"Uh, yeah." Time to tell her. "Um, actually, I – I kind of need to talk to you, Mrs. Clearwater."

"Please, Jacob. Y - you can call me Sue."

"Uh, sure. Sue ..."

"Yes?"

_Come on._

"Um, so, do you know… I mean, you must know about, about imprinting, right? What happened to Sam after he saw Emily... Right, of course you know. Well, I, I don't know how to tell you this, but," I hesitated, not quite sure how best to put it. She had thrown me off at the strange look that had crossed her face at the mention of Sam with Emily. I decided to just come out and say it. "I've ... imprinted. On Leah."

She blinked. And then something I never expected happened. She smiled. Not a particularly happy smile, like the ones she used to give, but still a smile.

And then the tears began to flow.

I stared, aghast and shocked, and patted her shoulder again, not knowing what else I could possibly do. She was still very emotional about it all. "Uh, Mrs. Clearwater? Sue? I'm sorry, did that upset you? I couldn't help it, it just happened. I won't –"

"Jacob, I'm so pleased," she said through a sob. "It's, it's just what Leah needed right now. She's been so sad, for so long. And you're … such a nice - Be," sniff, "good to her, for me. For Harry."

"I – of course, Sue." I looked around for a box of tissues, just as a door opened, and Leah walked in to the room. Her eyes widened and she was immediately at her mother's side, giving her a hug. She didn't look at me for very long, and I backed away quickly, giving her some space. I wanted to talk to her, about everything, but that could wait. She didn't want me around just then, and so I began to back out of the house, towards the door, as quietly as possible.

Leah looked over at me and sighed. "Wait," said mouthed to me. I stopped immediately and stood there, in the doorway. Waiting.

**A/N: Woo, there's chapter two! ****Well, sorry these first chapters have been kinda short, next will hopefully be better and longer! I just needed to get this stuff out, and I liked ending it here, on a sort-of cliffie! And I'm sorry if it's moving a bit fast, but that's the point. It's all happening so fast for poor Jake! Oh, and I couldn't resist adding that stalker comment. I've always thought that was just a bit creepy, how Edward was there without Bella knowing, so … haha.**

**Also, just to let you all know … Right now I think I'm going to try to keep everything (aside from the obvious parts) canon. So, unfortunately, there might just be a mutant spawn more commonly known as "Renesmee" eventually, but that's in the far, far, far future! Sorry!**

**Please let me know if this sucked or not. I tried to get the emotions right, but I'm really not that good at this whole deep, emotional, conflicted/sad stuff. It was especially horrible for me to write that scene with Sue! Hope I didn't overdo any of it. REVIEW and let me know if it's alright! ****Oh, and don't worry, I'm working on the next chapter of L&J:YSIG, too!**

**Much Love,**

**PSF**

**x  
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**R-E-V-I-E-W!  
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	3. I Really am an Idiot

**A/N: Look! I'm back with chapter 3!! Awesome, aren't I?**

**Enjoy!**

"Thank you," she said hesitantly.

"What for?"

"For taking me home. For not …" she trailed off, looking down at the ground.

I smiled at her, lifting her chin with my hand so she would look at me. "It was no problem at all. You don't ever have to thank me, Leah. For anything. I …" I couldn't find the right words. There weren't any. It was simply a feeling, something I knew I couldn't explain, yet she would understand in time. I knew she would.

When she didn't respond, I dropped my hand and smiled again. "What were you doing out here by yourself?"

"I just needed to be alone, I guess. It's no big deal." She shrugged. "Sometimes a girl just needs to be left alone."

"Oh. Sorry I disturbed you, then," I said, averting my eyes for the first time.

"No it's … I'm glad you did. I didn't realize it, but I guess I … needed someone with me there after all."

I smiled at her yet again. It was hard not to. She was being so unlike her usual self. We were in that same clearing as yesterday. She had talked with Sue for a little while, and then came out for a walk with me. We didn't realize where we were headed until we got back to this clearing. Strange how that happens sometimes.

"You didn't have to come looking for me, you know," she finally said, almost sounding a little angry.

"Yeah, but I wanted to. I was worried about you."

"I'm fine!" she said a bit too forcefully.

"Really, Leah? Are you?" I said it as gently as I possibly could. I turned to look into her eyes. She blinked and looked away.

"I am … I will be. I - You didn't have to take me home. You didn't have to sit there as I cried like an idiot! You didn't –"

"Hey, come on. You're not an idiot! You've been though a lot. It's fine. I told you, I wanted to be there."

"_Why?_"

I could have told her everything, right then and there. I actually should have. But I just couldn't. I could see in her eyes that, at that moment, she couldn't take any more. She just needed a friend. A shoulder to cry on. She definitely did not need to know that her brother was a wolf, that I was a wolf, that Sam had left her because of some wolf-ish magic, and she certainly didn't need to know that I was bound to her by that same strange magic, that I would do absolutely anything for her. How could I tell her everything, when I knew how much it had hurt her with Sam? She wouldn't want to know anything about the damn wolves; it would only cause her more pain. That was something I couldn't stand. She just needed a friend, and that was all, so that's what I would be for her. There would be time to tell her later. At least, that's what I told myself over and over.

"There doesn't have to be a reason, Lee," I said, grinning as I used my old nickname for her from when we were kids.

She almost laughed. "If you say so, Jake."

"I do."

She paused, biting her lips. "Thanks for being there."

"No problemo!" I said with a huge grin on my face. This time she laughed, and my heart stopped at that beautiful sound. I could do anything to make her laugh again, and I would. I put an arm around her and gave her a goofy wink. She smiled.

We stayed there for a long time. It could have been hours, or days, or even weeks, and I wouldn't have noticed the difference. We just sat there talking, smiling, making stupid jokes, and laughing. She was almost completely back to her normal, teasing, irritating and just plain amazing self. She was smiling at one of my more brilliant jokes, when she suddenly flinched and a grimace crossed her face.

"What's wrong?"

"What? Nothing! Stop being stupid! What were we –"

"Leah."

"I – fine. I dunno, I just feel kinda strange …"

"You okay?"

I – yeah. I'm fine. I think I just need to get back now. I don't feel like staying out anymore."

"Alright, Lee. Hey, let's go see if we can find Seth. Bugging him a bit ought to fix you up," I said, standing up.

She laughed her unique laugh once more, and hesitantly let me pull her to her feet, groaning a little bit. As she began walking, I had an idea. I grinned an evil grin at her, and I saw the alarm in her eyes as I lifted her into my arms.

"Ahh! Jake, what the hell are you doing? Put me down!"

"Come on, Leah. You shouldn't be walking if you're not feeling well. Besides, this will be faster!" And then I put her over my shoulder and began running. Not _really_ running - that would have just freaked her out – but faster than most normal people could go. She screamed some more, yelling and kicking her legs the whole time. She hit my back a few times, and it actually stung a bit. I was surprised; it took a lot to hurt a werewolf! If anyone else tried it they would have probably broken their hand.

"What the hell, Jacob!" she cried the second I put her down.

"What?" I asked innocently. "Told you it would be faster. See, you're already home."

She rolled her eyes and stormed in, so angry she was actually shaking. She banged the door shut behind her. Soon after I heard another door bang. No one else was at home, as far as I could tell, or else they would've heard the noise she was making. I followed her in and looked around. She must be in her room.

I went to her door and found it locked. I briefly considered breaking it down. No, Sue might get angry if I did. Instead, I knocked loudly and said, "Aw, come on, Leah. Don't pretend that wasn't fun! It was hilarious!"

"Ugh! Go away, jerk!" she yelled. Yep, she was back to the old Leah we all knew and loved. I could tell she didn't mean it, so I persisted. "Aw, Lee, I'm sorry. Really, I am. I thought you'd enjoy a little _ride_. C'mon, I said I'm sorry. Let me in, please?"

She was quiet for a second, and then she mumbled back, "Go awaaaay, Jake! I'm feeling sick."

I frowned, immediately worried. "Leah, let me in," I said seriously, the teasing edge to my voice gone.

"What? Ugh, go away, Jacob. I'm tired. I think I've come down with something. You don't want to catch this. I think I have a fever."

Breaking down the door seemed like a pretty good idea right about now.

"Leah, open the door," I said frantically. "Come on, please? Are you alright? Come on, or I swear I'll bust it open! Let me in. What's wrong? Let me _in_, damn it, Leah!"

I heard a groan from inside, and then the door clicked open. She was already moving back to her bed to lie down. She looked ... odd.

"I swear I felt fine a minute ago. I don't know what's going on. You don't have to be so melodramatic!" she sighed, rolling over to her side on the bed. I sat down beside her, looking her over.

"Never mind that! What's wrong?"

"Feel my head, do I have a fever?" she asked.

I did as she asked, but my own hand was so hot I could barely tell anything. "Uh, I might not be the best judge for that, Lee," I stroked her hair, trying to comfort her. "I'll go look for Sue. She might be at my place, or Charlie's." A small part of me realized I was neglecting Charlie, despite my promise to Bella. That didn't matter. The pack was taking good care of him, and they were more than capable. I got up to get the phone, but she held my hand.

"No, it's ok. Just … don't go. Don't leave me, Jacob."

"Leah, I would never leave you. Hey, you're trembling. Do you want to go to the hospital?"

"No, I hate hospitals. Especially the one down at Forks. It's creepy there. The doctor … the Creepy Cullen, he weirds me out. Just stay here a while, I'll be fine before you know it. I'm a quick healer."

"But Lee, really. Are you cold?" I looked around, worried. I put a blanket on her with my free hand. She was still shaking. What else could I do? Call a doctor? Call Sue? No, I'll get Seth. Yeah, I'll phase, tell Seth, and he can tell the Pack. Sam would know what to do. At the very least they could tell Billy, and hopefully Sue.

"I'm just gonna go and call Seth," I said softly, trying to ease her grip on me and get up. I couldn't. She was _strong._

"No!" she yelled. "Just – Don't leave me alone again."

"Leah, really. I'll be back in a –" I was silenced by the look she gave me. "Leah, you're shaking like mad. Are you cold? Here," I sat there beside her and put my arms around her, trying to warm her up and stop her shaking.

I rubbed her back. "Is this any better?"

"Uh, yeah that feels good. Ugh, I still feel weird." Her shaking stopped. Good.

"Leah, please, I'll just go and call Seth, I'll be back in two seconds."

"No, stop trying to leave, damn it! I'm fine!" she growled angrily.

My eyes widened and I got up and backed up off the bed in horror. Oh, God, I'm such an idiot! I should have realized what was happening sooner, I'd gone through the exact same thing! I had been so blinded by my frantic worrying that I hadn't been able to put it all together. It seemed dead obvious now; she was shaking like mad, running a fever, was strangely strong, and had grown like ten inches since I last saw her …

"Leah, oh God, calm –" I began, but it was too late. She had exploded out of her clothes, and now in front of me stood a frantic-looking gray wolf.

**A/N: Ok, that was even shorter than ****the last one, but oh well! I was feeling a bit evil and so I wanted to end it there! Mwahahahaha! Again with the emotions … I hate doing them but I kind of have to with this fic. The start of the chapter is supposed to be a bit awkward, because Leah isn't one who expresses her feelings very often, so she doesn't know how to do it, and Jake is just being Jake, all imprinted-y and caring, trying to cheer her up, make her happy and all that. But they get less uncomfortable around each other pretty fast once the awkward part is over, at least that's what I was going for. Let me know what you think! **

**Much love as always,**

**PSF**

**REVIEW!**** The longer the better! Criticism, comments, ideas, all highly appreciated!**


	4. But She's A Girl!

**A/N: Sorry it's been sooo long! Way later than i said it would be. I've had major writer's block with this chappie. I've re-written this thing at least ten times! I couldn't get it quite perfect… but let's hope it's at least worth a read****. Plus I have (shock horror) grown a year older.. and school has unfortunately become even more time-consuming. So i have no idea how far apart these updates will get. I'm so so soooo sorry! but i promise i WILL finish this story, no matter how long it takes.  
**

**Enjoy**

**X**

I stared in shock as the wolf's eyes widened and she moved her head around frantically, wondering what was going on. This was not possible. Seth, sure, but Leah? She was a … well, she was a _she_! A girl! Girls couldn't turn into wolves! It had never, ever happened before. Our ancestors hadn't told us this could happen. It can't be! And yet here was Leah, very real, very much a wolf …

She took an angry step towards me and let out a growl, then jumped back in shock. She looked at me for the briefest moment, and that was all it took to get me back to my senses. Wolf or not, she needed me, and that was all that mattered.

"Leah," I said, slowly and loudly. She didn't listen. She shook her head, confused, and I just hoped that none of the others were in wolf form at that moment. Although, maybe that would actually help. She turned around the room, howling. She banged into a number of things, breaking her desk, scratching the walls.

"Leah!" I said again, louder this time. She looked down at me, finally. More like glowered. I tried to conceal my shock as I spoke, "I know this has got to be confusing. Calm down. It's okay, Leah. I know what you're going through. It's alright. Just wait, I - I'm going to join you, to help explain. Can you wait for a second?" Just as I was about to phase, she reached a paw out to me, saw that it was a paw and not a hand, then looked down at herself in horror. In the same instant, she tore out the window, into the forest, breaking the glass and a little bit of the wall around it. Without a thought, I jumped straight out the window after her, phasing in mid-jump once I was out of the house. Good thing she was a relatively small wolf.

Good. No one else was in wolf-mode. That would help. I hope.

_What is that? Who's there?_

_Leah. It's ok. It's me. Relax._

_J – Jacob?_

_Yes. Where are you, Leah?_

_JACOB! __I – What's going on!? What the freaking hell is going on? Don't come - I – I'm a – I've just … ahh! _She was so panicked she couldn't even complete her thoughts. I sifted through her thoughts briefly and found where she was. I ran at top speed to get to her. She was running hard, with no real destination. She was fast - I just barely managed to catch up.

She skidded to a halt and growled when she saw me.

_Leah. It's me. It's Jacob._

_Jake? _The shock in her mind was obvious, and understandable. The disgust and horror, however …

_Y – you're a – you too?_

_Yes. Now relax, Leah._

_You were a – you knew about – and you didn't - _

_Calm d –_

_S__top telling me to calm down! I want to know what the hell this is! What - Why is this happening? Tell me, damn it!_

She glared up at me, stepped forward angrily. And I let it all pour into her, exactly as it had been poured into me by Embry when I first phased, as I had done for Quil and Seth when they phased. I showed her what I had gone through, the first time I phased. The fear, the confusion, the rage, the power, and the pain. Knowing my life would never be the same again. The others in my head, telling me it was going to be alright, explaining. How all our old legends were true. How much I hated myself. What Sam really was. His feelings for Emily. Doing patrols with the others. How Quil had phased after me, and then Seth after him. How it was caused by the bloodsuckers being there. That she could no longer meet other people, that it was too dangerous. How we exploded out of our human form if we got too out of control. _Everything. _Needless to say, it took a while. She stood there, completely still, absorbing it all.

_Leah?_ I tentatively moved forward a little, and she immediately moved back a step. It hurt more than I could describe to see her do that, to see her angry and afraid … of me. She heard my anguish in my head, but didn't respond.

_Lee, _I begged her, taking another short, slow step forward.

_I – I'm a monster! _

_No, Leah. Really, we're not monsters. _

_Are you kidding? Look at us! We're both _monsters!

_I thought so too, at first, but we really aren't. We protect people. We're good.__ We're the good guys, Leah._

_All this time. You all … and Seth, my own brother! Why couldn't you tell me? _I sensed the betrayal she felt. From Seth and, worse, from me.

_Seth wasn't allowed to. Sam –_

_SAM! Don't talk to me about _Sam. _Why does he get to make the damn rules?_

_I showed you, h__e's our Alpha, Leah. He's in charge. When he gives an order … it has to be followed. _

She growled. _Why is he in charge here?_

_Because __he was the first, he was alone, and he helped us all through this, just like he's going to help you._

_Like hell I want his help. _She growled again. Even her first time as a wolf, she wasn't going to take anything from Sam.

_Leah, be reasonable!_

_So Seth couldn't tell me. _What a subtle change of topic. _Why didn't you? Is Sam in charge of you, too? _It was almost a sneer.

_Leah, I was just about to tell you. I was going to, and I probably__ should have, back in that clearing, but I just – that look in your eyes - I just … couldn't do it. It would have hurt you so bad, Lee._

_Oh, yeah. 'Cause this isn't bad at all, right? Bursting out of my body and all that!_

_Forgive me Leah. I … I just … _I backed away from her slowly. I could tell what she was thinking, and every emotion she was feeling, but even without all that I could tell that she didn't want me there. Her eyes said it all.

Alright, I'd do what she wanted. _I'm sorry, Lee._

_Jake –_

_For everything__. For what you're going through, for not telling you. I'll go now. It's fine. Sometimes a girl's gotta be left alone, right? Just know I'm here for you. We all are. Really. We've all been through it, I know it sucks, and it's weird, and everything, but honestly, once you get past it, you might find it's not _all_ bad. _

_Jacob … I can't - this is all too …._

_I know it is. __I'll phase back, so you won't have me in your head, now. I'll tell the others not to either. Just try to calm yourself enough to get back. When you're ready, we – I'll help._

And that was when she saw that I had imprinted. It was inevitable, especially with her this close, the only thought in my mind, and for this long a time in wolf-mode. She mentally gasped in shock.

_I – Jake, I didn't … know … When did__ - I ... What was - this is all so much to – I can't – _Her breathing was spiking, she was panicking again. Oh, no. Not good.

Keep her calm, Jake, keep her calm!

_Leah. Leah! Lee, look at me! Look at me, and calm down. It will only get worse if you keep this up. Come on, that's it, deep breaths. _I tried to think of the most calming thoughts I could, and sent them her way. I could both see and feel her calming down even if it was just a little bit. I don't quite know how it had happened, but as I looked around I noticed for the first time that we were suddenly only inches away from each other. And as soon as I thought that, she noticed it too.

_Jake …_

_It's fine. I'll go. You can be alone if you want. You're different from the rest of us, you can deal with this properly, on your own. I know it. You're strong enough to get through this. But I'll be close by if you need me. Just howl. When you feel ready, calm enough, phasing back will seem natural. It's reflexive, just try to think human!_

I gave her my memories of phasing back to human, and left her with my version of a wolfy grin and walked out of the clearing, focusing as much as I could to not think thoughts that would make her feel worse. I could still hear her thoughts racing over everything I had told her in such a short amount of time, the hesitation, how torn she was.

It killed me that she had to go through this. Damn those filthy bloodsuckers.

Even though it probably wasn't the right thing to do, I phased back, because that was what she wanted. I put on some spare shorts I had stashed around the forest, and went to her house, collapsing on top of the same, small couch, and I was once again left waiting. It was stupid; she would probably take at least a week to get back. Still, I sat there.

A few moments later, I heard her howling. Fear rippled through me and I was a wolf the moment I stepped out of the house, not caring that I'd ripped my shorts again. If I had thought about it a second, I would have noticed the howl was more angry than it was panicked.

_Leah?!_ My thoughts were urgent. What had happened? Did she hurt someone by mistake? Hurt herself? Was she lost? Did something –

_Relax, Jacob. She's fine. _Sam. Again.

_Sam, what happened? Leah, where are you? I'm on my way._

_Jake. I – I really need to be alone right now. _I felt the pain in her thoughts. I couldn't understand the source of it, but it was immense.

_The hell you do. I'm coming! _I ran at full speed, following her scent as well as her mind.

_You didn't tell her what you __were before she had phased? About all of it? _Any_ of it? What were you thinking? You imprinted on her… you were allowed to tell her! _Sam's voice was angry in my head, scolding me as if I was a child.

_I was thinking of what she needed, Sam! Maybe you should try it __sometime. _The thought came out before I could help it. That's what happened when you were linked like this. I cursed at myself. Both Sam and Leah remained quiet, and the only sounds were my heavy thuds on the ground as I ran.

_Jacob. Watch what you say._

_Just phase back, Sam. She doesn't want you in her head. I can handle this, so just stay out. _And then Sam was gone. Good.

_Jake …_

_I'm almost there, Leah._

_Jake!_

_Don't, Leah. _And then I was there, beside her, where I was meant to be. _It's okay now. Forget about him._

She sniffed, and I knew that if she were human, she would probably be crying again.

_I would not._ It sounded stubborn, and almost playful. Or maybe I was just hoping it sounded that way.

_Liar._ I nuzzled up to her, my head on top of hers. _It's ok, Lee. It takes time to get back. It took most of them days just to stop freaking out, and another few day to actually phase back. And that was fast. Seth took over a week. Almost two! You're doing so well, Lee!_

Leah snorted. _Little twerp was always a slow learner. How long was it for you?_

_Well, I took a __day. But I'm special like that!_ I laughed mentally, and she gave a reluctant chuckle as well. I sent more memories of how to phase back her way, especially of the ones from my first time.

The next thing I knew, she was screwing her eyes up in concentration, and then she was lying there in front of me, human and completely naked. She gasped and then curled up on the ground, completely silent. I whimpered a bit but she ignored me. I immediately ran off to one of my many stashes and came back with a shirt and two pairs of shorts as fast as I could, in too much of a hurry to phase and change myself. They wouldn't exactly fit her, but they would do the job.

As I approached her with the clothes, she flinched and leaned backwards, clearly afraid. She had been hiding how much I scared her, had she? It broke my heart, seeing her so scared of me. I left the clothes a few feet from her, and then gave her a wide berth as I went to the bushes behind her to phase. Once I had pulled my shorts on, I gave her some time to change as well. After a few minutes, hearing her sobbing, I couldn't wait any more, and I stepped out into the clearing.

She hadn't moved an inch. She was still curled up on the ground, naked, and now crying. I slowly walked up to her, and fell to my knees behind her. "Leah," I murmured. She didn't look up. She just kept crying. I put a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off immediately, so I got up and walked around her, and sat in front of her.

I waited a few minutes for her to stop crying, and then with one hand I slowly reached for her face, gently resting it on her cheek. "Leah, look at me. Please." I removed my hand from her cheek and placed in on her shoulder. "You can't sit out here. At least – at least let me take you back home. Then I'll … I'll go away, if that's what you want." She didn't show any signs of protest, and I took that as her permission. I carefully pulled her into a sitting position. She wouldn't meet my gaze, so I sighed and just looked around for the shirt I had brought.

As I pulled away from her to get it, she finally looked up at me, surprised. I grabbed the shirt and pulled it over her head silently. She didn't move, so I pulled her hands through it too. I could tell it would at least reach mid-thigh if she stood up, and knew that the shorts would never fit, so I left them there. "Alright, Leah, I – I'm going to carry you, if that's –" I stopped mid-sentence as she slithered on to my lap and looked up at me. It was the most heartbreaking look anyone had ever seen. Then, her eyes closed and she collapsed against my chest.

"Hey, whoa, Leah? Leah? Are you okay?" I asked urgently. No response. I hurriedly put one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, and got up. I carried her home again, just as I had yesterday. I knew I could do it everyday, if I had to.

When we reached, I put her on her bed in her damaged room. Thank God she hadn't broken the bed. I took one last look at her, then sighed, about to go back into the hall. I figured I would sleep on the couch again, if at all.

Just as I was about to open the door, I heard her mumble something. I turned around, surprised, and I was back beside her in a flash. "Leah? Are you awake? How are you feeling?" She looked at me but didn't really say anything. I sat on the edge of the bed and held her face in my hand. "Do you need anything? I could go and get –"

"Jacob." That's all she said. My name.

We were silent for a while then. I searched for something to say, something that might make her smile again, even laugh. "Paul and Jared are gonna be so jealous that you phased back to human so fast. They were pissed I got it so quickly, and you were faster than me!" I half-smiled, willing her to smile as well.

She didn't. On the contrary, it seemed to piss her off. "What, is that a good thing? Being good at being a monster?" she snapped, sitting up. Her hands began to tremble.

"Oh, no. Leah, I didn't mean – we're not monsters. I know what you're going through, and I swear it does get better."

"No, you do not know what I'm going through!" She was definitely shaking now. A lot. And yelling. "I'm alone – I'm the only …"

"Hey, you're never gonna be alone. Calm – calm down. Please, just calm down a bit." She didn't listen. She began shaking a little faster now. I did the only thing I could think of; I pulled her into my arms and onto my lap, holding her tight. I rubbed her back and stroked her hair, slowly trying to calm her. It worked. She gave a final, scared shudder and buried her face in my shoulder, wrapping her arms around me as well.

"Oh, God! What_ was_ that? I felt so … so angry! And for no reason. It felt like I was gonna – explode, or something. Oh, God, Jake, I really am a monster! I – I –" She couldn't go any further.

"Hey, shh, it's fine. We all lose control at the start. It gets easier, honest. You're doing so well." She sniffed, but didn't let herself cry again. I set her back down on her bed, but as I tried to pull away, she wouldn't let go.

"Stay." That was all she said.

"Of course." I smiled at her and lay down beside her, holding her tight. She sniffed a little, and curled up near me, keeping her head on my shoulder, relaxing ever so slightly. I soothingly rubbed her back with one hand, while still holding her close with the other. I rested my cheek on the top of her head, and before I knew it, she was asleep in my arms, finally looking peaceful again.

I couldn't sleep myself just yet. I kept thinking about it all. She was the first female werewolf ever, as far as I knew. There had never been one before. I wondered what Sam and the other Elders thought about that. At this very moment, were they discussing it together? Or had they already finished talking? Should I have been involved in that discussion? Did Seth know that his sister was one of us yet? What did the rest of my brothers think about it? Would anyone object to it? Would it even matter if they did?

My hands tightened around her, as I thought about it all, tense and worried about seeing everyone the next day. Leah shifted slightly in my arms, and I forgot about everything else. I focused on nothing but her: her beauty, her strength, how amazingly she was handling it all. I sighed and allowed myself to fall asleep as well. Everything could wait until the morning.

**A/N: Wow. You have no idea how scared I was of publishing this one. I hope I got it right. If I didn't let me know, and be honest.**** I can take it!**

**Either way... you must REVIEW!!**


	5. Sure Sucks To Be Me Right Now

**A/N: I had major writer's block with this chappie**** too! Can't tell you how many times I've re-written this. I don't even know **_**why**_** it was hard! I was in a rush to get this to you, so it's kind of short, and probably not that good.**

**Really hope you all like this one!**** It's from Leah's POV and hopefully will give you some insight into what she's going through right now.**

**Enjoy!**

I woke up feeling slightly disoriented, yet more comfortable than I remembered being in a long time. I kept my eyes closed, and took a second to remember where I was, and then I felt someone's arms tighten around me. My eyes flew open. I looked up and the memories from last night came rushing back.

I blinked a few times in confusion, then pulled away from Jacob in surprise.

"Um, Leah?" I heard him ask uncertainly, his voice sounding far away. He took his arm out from around my back and slowly got up off the bed. I shuddered from the loss of contact. I didn't want him to leave. Not yet. I tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind. I was still in shock, I supposed, so I just stared off into space, not speaking, not looking at him, not moving.

"Leah? Do you want me to leave the room? Leah?"

My eyes flickered to him, then the door, then back. I shook my head no and heard him sigh in relief. Then he gently sat back down beside me and tentatively put his arm back around me. I rested my head on his shoulder again. It seemed to me the only thing to do. It calmed me a little, at the very least. I felt at ease.

Then a thought came to my mind. As hard as I tried, I couldn't shake it. I was too damn curious for my own good.

"Who else?" I whispered.

"Uh, what?"

"Who else. Who else is a – is … one of _us_." I couldn't bring myself to say werewolf – I couldn't even _think_ it without shuddering.

"Leah – "

"Who else, Jake?"

"Well, there's me, and Paul, and Jared, and Embry and Quil and Seth. And then Sa – Yeah. Uh, just us seven ... – eight, including you – I mean, not that I'm including you with us – not if you don't want – but I just meant technically –" He sighed, looked at me, and muttered miserably, "I'm sorry. I'll just shut up now."

I smiled half-heartedly at the effort he was putting in trying not to say anything that might upset me. He grinned back at me.

"And they're all … in your head?" I asked, horrified by the thought.

"Well … yeah."

"All the time?" I added desperately.

"Only in wol – in the _other_ form," he said, changing tacts as I cringed at the word 'wolf'.

I shook my head in a mixture of sadness and anger. Possibly disbelief as well. I wasn't entirely sure.

"It really helps when we're hunting down some Bloodsuckers," he said, grinning viciously as he tried to cheer me up. I grimaced.

"Alright, let's just grab some breakfast. I'm starved, so you must be too! Didn't eat all day yesterday what with … uh, and I bet Seth's just dying to see you. Kid probably won't believe till he actually sees … So, um, what about ..." He rambled on, stopping mid-sentence whenever he reached the dreaded topic of the day. He quite literally pulled me out of my bed, and that was when I remembered that I was wearing only his oversized shirt from before.

"Uh, get changed, Lee. I'll be in the, uh, hall." He gave me a swift kiss on the forehead and left the room.I sighed once he'd shut the door behind him and fell back on my bed, holding my head in my hands.

I was a monster now. And apparently so was Jake … and Seth … and _Sam_. A part of me almost felt glad to have a reason for his betrayal, but that just made it hurt so much more. Because now I couldn't even be _angry_ at that damn idiot.

I grudgingly headed to my wardrobe. I stuck my hand in and pulled out a shirt and shorts at random, and then I briefly considered not wearing underwear – it would be a pain if I just exploded out of them whenever I got pissed off, which, if I was being honest, would probably be very often – but pulled out some underwear and a bra anyway. It was just wrong to not wear underwear, and I shuddered at the thought of all the boys not wearing underwear.

I took my time changing, too tired to move any faster. I left my room and went to brush my teeth, which also took longer than normal. Man, I was really tired. Or maybe I just didn't feel up to any of that crap. I just did it to have something to focus my mind on. Something _other_ than the thoughts that I really didn't want to have to deal with … at least not until it was absolutely necessary.

I rinsed and took a deep breath, and trudged towards the hall. The smell of eggs just managed to peak my interest, and I looked up to find Jake frying some eggs. Seth was already up, scarfing down his own giant plate of eggs.

"I'm impressed. Who knew you could cook?" I said in a tone more lifeless than I had intended. Apparently my voice had lost the ability to sound energetic, or even alive. Jacob laughed anyway, and Seth snorted.

"He's a much better cook than you could ever hope to be," Seth laughed, though it sounded a tad forced.

Jacob looked around and smiled at me, saying modestly, "They're only eggs. Anyone can cook eggs."

No one answered him so he shrugged and turned around.

I took a seat beside Seth and looked at him. _Really _looked at him. He'd shot up, and his hair was cropped short, just like Jacob's, and the others I had seen at the funeral. Just like Sam had asked me to cut his hair that night he came back to me after he had disappeared for weeks, when I had been searching frantically for him, when he had really been … I shuddered, pushing away the thoughts. Those weeks were not ones I let myself think about much. Or at all. Especially not now that I knew where he really was, and why he couldn't tell me...

"Order up," Jake said brightly, breaking my train of thought. Something about his grin as he put a plate buried under scrambled eggs on my plate seemed extremely forced. He was trying to seem happy. For me. I sighed.

"So, h – how are you feeling, sis?" Seth asked cautiously.

"I'm … alright. I've been better." I shovelled food in my mouth, trying to avoid having this conversation with my _brother. _Who was already a _werewolf_. I shuddered. And only then did I realize how hungry I was. "I actually feel really hungry right now."

They both grinned at me a little too enthusiastically. They were a bit too happy that I was making jokes, and not just curling up and crying like a baby. Which, to be honest, didn't seem like too bad a choice. I resolved then and there not to cry over yesterday again. Over anything. I was better than that and I knew it.

"So … you're a … a wolf too, huh?" asked Seth slowly. I sighed and nodded. Guess it was time to deal with it. I saw Jacob glare at Seth, but he didn't notice. The twerp was too busy talking and eating.

"Don't worry, Leah. It's dead cool, once you get the hang of it! Running and running... we're so much faster when we're in wolf mode! Actually, even human I could probably take just about anyone on the Rez! And we're so much stronger! And if you listen, like, really, r_eally _listen, you can hear all the way out to First Beach. It's amazing. And we heal in like two seconds, did you know that? It's awesome. I could show you later, if you want. And then we're doing so much for everyone, protecting everyone … it's great Leah. Really!"

Wow. I'd forgotten how much Seth talked in the years I'd been away.

"You'll love it. You've always been a speed junkie … you'll get a kick out of running like the wind! It's awesome!"

"Alright, that's enough talk for you, kid. Don't you have to go on patrols or something?" Jacob cut in.

"No. It's Paul and Jared today. Oh yeah, Jake, I almost forgot! Sam said that you – both of you, actually – should talk to him. He's probably gonna wanna check up on Leah. He was freaked out of his mind when he found out she had phased! Like, you won't believe how much he was pacing – pacing! In wolf-mode, too! It was actually pretty funny. Uh, well … yeah. We should all probably … phase and … talk with … uh, yeah ... I'll just go and see if Paul and Jared need help with patrols …"

He trailed off and nearly ran out of the house at the look I was giving him. I most certainly did _not_ want to talk to Sam. Almost as if he had read my mind, Jacob came in front of me and sat in the seat Seth had just vacated and said, "I know it must suck to have to see him now, Leah, but you're going to have to eventually." He brushed his hand against my cheek and I shuddered once again. "He's our Alpha, he needs to know where your head's at about all this. Alright? Are you okay with that?"

Ugh. Why the hell was he in charge? What made him so bloody great? It was pissing me off. Really pissing me off. Before I knew it, my body was shaking and I exploded out of my clothes again, breaking the chair I was sitting on. Jake jumped back slightly in shock.

_Leah! _Seth's voice said in my head, clearly a little shocked.

_Ugh. Damn this. I wasn't even that pissed off!_

_Well, well, if it isn't the girlie wolf herself._

_Knock it off, Paul! _Seth screamed.

_Finally gracing us with you presence?_

_Shut up!_

Kudos to Seth. Paul was a lot older – and bigger – than he was.

_Thanks for the compliment, she-wolf._

_Aw, Leah! Did you have to say that? Now he'll just gloat about that all day! _Seth said, mentally groaning.

_UGH! Get out of my head!_

I felt like screaming, and it came out as a growl. I reached out a hand to Jacob, but it was a paw. I groaned and ran out of the house, just barely managing to fit through the door.

_Running away, are we? _

_Shut up, you idiot._

_Paul, don't piss her off._ This was a new voice. One I didn't really recognize that well.

_That's Jared. _Seth answered my thought.

And then, to add to the mental chaos, yet another voice popped into my head, this one worried.

_Leah? Are you alright. I'm sorry, did I say something to upset you?_

Before I could respond to Jake, Paul snorted and interrupted.

_Jeez, Jacob. You imprint on little-miss-__she-wolf here and you get all girly. What's with you._

Jake growled angrily. I knew if Paul was within reach he might tear his limbs off.

_Hah, I'd like to see him try._

_You know he could, _Seth jeered. _Remember with Bella before? When you lost you temper … again!_

_You weren't even there, kid, _Paul hissed.

_Still. I saw it in all you heads. Duh!__ Jake totally beat you. He could do it again, with his hands tied behind his back!_

_Shut it, kid. I'd hate to have to kill you with your sister watching._

_Ugh! This is so frustrating!_

_Then phase back. We don't want to be in you sour little head anyway._

I really didn't like Paul at all.

_Aw, and now you've hurt my feelings._

_ENOUGH! _roared Jacob, his voice echoing in our heads.

Paul shut up, finally, and I managed to calm myself enough to phase back, just as I felt another consciousness enter the world of the pack mind. It was Sam.

I definitely had good timing.

I stared up at the giant russet wolf that was Jake, and felt horrible. I had lost control over nothing. _Nothing! _This was not a good thing. Jacob stayed in his wolf self a while longer, presumably to have a nice little chat with Sam and the others. I was only too happy not to be a part of that. I stalked back to my house with what little dignity I had left - which was very little, considering I was naked yet again - slammed the door to my room, and put on some new clothes. At this rate, all my clothes would be gone within a month. I tried to calm myself by taking a deep breath, even though I doubted it would help.

It didn't.

And then Jacob knocked on my door.

**A/N: I know it's pathetically short. Well at least it's something... and so soon, too! This was basically where I couldn't figure out what would happen next, so I decided to stop and post it!**

**Let me know what you think... REVIEW!!**

**Much love,**

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	6. Well, This Is Kind Of Awkward

**A/N: Well, it took me a little while – ok, a really long while – to get an idea for where this fic would go next. I had no idea what Jacob would say to Leah when he entered her room. But, I finally got it! I'm kinda nervous. I don't know what's wrong with me.. I'm never worried about updating my other fic! This one has sooo many more emotions, especially in these first few chapters! Hehe. I really hope this doesn't suck. Ok, enough blabbing. Enjoy!**

For a second, I seriously thought she wasn't going to let me in. I guess I wouldn't have blamed her. Then I heard footsteps, and she opened the door.

"It wasn't locked," she muttered, not looking at me, going back to sit cross-legged on her bed. She seemed angry, or upset. Or both.

"I know," I replied, shrugging. "But I wasn't going to come in if you didn't want me to."

She didn't say anything, just continued staring off into space. I didn't know what to do. I slowly walked closer to her. She didn't seem to mind. I sat down on her bed beside her. Her eyes flickered up to me and then away again.

"Leah?" I finally said, unable to take her silence any longer.

She sighed. "Well, what did Sam say?" she asked irritably.

I had imagined several things that she would say to me; that wasn't one of them. I frowned, not sure how to say it. Should I even bother to tell her? Well, she would find out anyway, so why not.

"Well, at first he was just worried about you. I told him you could deal with it just fine." She smirked briefly at that. I smiled back and continued, "Then he told me some stuff… important to the pack."

She looked at me apprehensively.

"We had to speak about what happens if … if Bella comes back. And if she brings those _leeches_ with her."

Had I already told her about that yet? I wasn't certain, but I was pretty sure it had all come out as I told her about the wolves and bloodsuckers, and our legends. At least, her face showed recognition at the mention of it all.

"So, what happens?" she asked quietly, no longer seeming angry. She was watching me carefully now. I wished she wouldn't do that

"I doubt she –_ they _– will even be coming back. Ever. That little one basically said it was a - a suicide mission… to go and help _Edward._ I'll probably never… see her again." I sighed. It hurt to think that Bella would not be coming back. I had lost my... well, what was she to me? My best friend, I guess. This was so weird. Suddenly I was the one who couldn't look Leah in the eyes.

"Jacob?" she said quietly. I had to look up. She looked into my eyes for what seemed like forever, and then she said, "You love her, don't you?"

I looked away again. I couldn't explain it to her. Hell, I wasn't even sure I could explain it to myself.

"Leah… I – I loved her, I guess. But - now it's - different. Now you – you're the only thing – I, I can't even begin to explain the way I –" I couldn't really go on. Not just because I didn't quite know how to, but also because it would have been too strange, and it would have freaked her out. It certainly freaked me out, and she understood imprinting even less than I did.

"So now you just don't care about Bella anymore?" she asked disbelievingly. "Because of this… this _imprinting_?" It was strange, the way she spat the word out. She felt exactly the same way about it as I had, before it happened to me.

I thought carefully about what to say. "She's still my friend – my best friend. I don't want her to get hurt. If she dies, I… I care about her, a lot. But, well, not the way I did before. I don't love her now." Wow. Saying that felt … there wasn't really a word for it. Liberating? Refreshing? I didn't know. It was good, though, whatever it was.

"So that's what it's like," she sighed, closing her eyes, her back slumping slightly against the bedpost.

"What what's like?" I asked.

"What it's like for him."

I knew who she meant.

_Sam._

So she still loved him. Well, I guess I couldn't blame her for that, either. He was … perfect for her. And he had loved her, just as she had loved him, and still did. Of course she still loved him. Wasn't this just the story of my life? Loving someone who loved someone else. I guess that fit in perfectly.

Bella loved Edward, and Leah loved Sam. Edward broke Bella's heart, and Sam broke Leah's. And Bella was being stupid, going off to die to save the thing that had hurt her. And Leah could never be with the man she loved. I felt sad for her for that. I looked at her, expecting to see sadness in her eyes.

I was wrong. Her eyes were still closed, but she still seemed almost happy. Relieved.

"Now I know," she sighed. In that moment, I understood what she was feeling. She was moving on, because now she finally knew and understood fully why Sam had done what he did. Why he had betrayed her the way he had, with her own cousin. What it was like for him.

She opened her eyes and smiled at me. A Leah-smile. The kind I hadn't seen in a long time. I couldn't exactly tell if she was crying or laughing, or both, but I didn't care, it didn't matter, as long as she was happy now.

I laughed with her, not entirely sure why we were laughing. Sometimes you just feel like laughing, I suppose. It was a while before we both stopped. Then she suddenly became serious again.

"So what happens if they come back?" she asked softly.

I sighed yet again; so we were back to this. Of course, it was important. "Well, we'll have to pull in our patrols. Can't be caught near their land, and we need to protect our own land."

"Protect … right," she muttered.

"Yeah, that's what we do," I said, smiling despite everything, in an effort to make her smile again as well. "We protect our people, our friends, and our families. That's why we are what we are."

"Right," she mumbled, not believing a word of it. She still thought of us as monsters. That was only natural. It had taken me saving Bella from the black haired vampire to finally feel a little good about being a werewolf – to know that I was able to save her because of what I was. It would take the same for Leah to understand.

"You have to realize, Leah. We are the only ones who can stop these leeches. If it weren't for us, they would kill everyone on our reservation, and in Forks. We protect people, Leah because no one else can. You have to understand that."

She nodded. I could tell that she knew she had to help our people. I could see the resolve in her eyes; whether she liked it or not, she would be a part of the pack, because she couldn't _not _be a part of it. She knew now. That was a good thing, right? We could always use another pack member when hunting down bloodsuckers.

So why did my heart and stomach both clench with horror when I imagined her out there in the forest, running with us? Oh, right. Because it was _dangerous._

Sure, we were stronger than the leeches, despite whatever Bella might have said. Sure, we could hunt as one, with our mental link in wolf form. Sure, none of us had been hurt by any of them yet. But damn, she's a girl. She's _my_ girl. And all of the freaking Cullens might be coming back here. And I didn't want her out there with those things. I'd kill them all myself if it meant she could be safe.

"Jacob? Are you alright?" Leah asked me.

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm okay. I'm dealing with it, I guess."

"I know you'll be able to," I smiled. "You're so much stronger than any other girl I've ever known. You can handle this."

She smiled weakly. "So, what do we do now?"

"Well, nothing, at the moment. Paul and Jared are still on patrols, with Sam, and I told Seth to go with them, but he's usually with me. We have some time before it's my turn. I usually go out with Quil, Embry and Seth. Would you – do you want to go out on patrols, Leah? Because you don't have to if you don't want to. We could –"

"I'm fine. I'll do it. Wh – when?" She was trying to be strong, to prove I was right when I called her strong.

"We'll have to talk to Sam about that. He needs a fourth ma – um, person, on his patrols with Jared and Paul. But I think it would be better if you went out with me. On patrols, I mean. Sam can take Seth, he's a bit more experienced now. Don't worry, you'll be – I mean, I'll, um, I'll be there – with you – if you need … um, yeah," I finished lamely.

Leah nodded, and smiled again. "It's probably better that way."

Good. She agreed. I didn't think she'd want to be with Sam, having him in her head and all that. And I definitely wanted to be there when she was on patrols. I'd die if I wasn't there, if I didn't know what was going on while she was out, if i couldn't be there to protect her.

"I already mentioned it to Sam earlier, but we weren't sure if you'd want to or not, so … Well, we'll talk to him tomorrow."

"Ok."

She wasn't talking very much. I tried to get her to talk some more.

"So what do you want to do today, Lee? It's still early."

She thought about it for a second. Then a smiled played across her lips, but just as she opened her mouth to speak, the phone rang. She sighed in irritation.

"Someone else can get it," I shrugged.

"Seth's out. And I think… Mom's over at your place. She said something about seeing Billy before Charlie comes over today," she said as she got up to get the phone.

"Charlie's coming over?" I asked, surprised. Yet again I felt guilty for ignoring my promise to Bella.

"Yeah," Leah called from the hall. "I think he's just coming to check up on us, after… you know. Plus I guess he needs to take his mind of his daughter running off after those... bloodsuckers."

Then I heard her pick up the phone. "Hello? Oh, hi Charlie."

I listened more carefully.

"Oh, how come?" Leah asked into the phone. "Oh!" she exclaimed after a pause, clearly shocked. I went into the hall to see what was up. Leah's face looked shocked, horrified, and worried at the same time.

"N – no, it's fine. I'm sure mom will understand. No, she – she's at Billy's house right now. She'll probably be back soon. I'll - I'll let her know… No, I'm fine. It's ok, Charlie. You'll be busy, obviously. Let us know how what's happened, then. I – I hope they're - alright." Sounded like she was trying to sound polite about this. "Hmm. Ok then. Take - take care. Yeah, bye."

I was about to explode with curiosity. Leah still looked stunned.

"Leah? Leah, what happened? What's wrong? What did Charlie say?" When she didn't respond, I went up to her and shook her slightly. "Leah?"

She blinked and said slowly, "B - Bella's back. They _all _are."

**A/N: Okay! That's done. Whew. It was kinda weird. Once again, I seriously hope I got the emotion stuff right, and all that. I **_**think **_**it's alright. I liked ending it there. Not really a cliffhanger, but an interesting place to stop. And once again I didn't really know where it would go from here, exactly, so I decided to stop and just post this! Please, please, please review! I won't be able to write until I get some reviews on this! Even if it sucked, please let me know! The next chapter will be up sooner than this one was, I promisee :)  
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**REVIEW! like, now. Right now. Go ahead. REVIEW!  
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**much love,**

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	7. Why Don't I Ever Know What To Say?

**A/N: Back with the next chapter! Pretty quick, eh? I don't think I've done this for the fic yet so  
Disclaimer: blah blah I don't own anything; characters are all Stephanie Meyer's … You know the drill.**

**Enjoy.**

The first thing I felt was relief. Bella was alive, she was okay. She was alive. I let out a breath I had no idea I was holding, and collapsed onto the sofa. I smiled, glad that I wouldn't have to worry about Bella anymore. She was home, and she was fine. Good. That was that.

But then I looked up at Leah and saw the look on her face. She was still horrified, possibly even more so because of my reaction. "Jake, they're all back," she kept saying. "The whole stupid leech family." She didn't know exactly how bad the bloodsuckers could be, so she must have been scared. I blinked. Right, that was the main part. That was the horrible part. She was scared, and that's what was important.

"Did Charlie say that? Did he say the leeches were back?"

She frowned a bit in thought. "Well… no, but … If Bella's back then… then they all must be, right?"

Well, that was probably true. "They left her last time. They might not be back, Leah." God, I wasn't even convincing _myself._

"I hope they aren't."

"Aw, come on. There's no need to be scared! We can take them on easily. It's actually not that bad… ripping those filthy little bloodsuckers up. You'll see." Nice, Jake. Make a joke when she's so freaked out. It won't piss her off or anything.

Before she could let out the irritation I could see in her eyes, I added, "And we save thousands of lives, you know, by killing them."

"Well… yeah."

"Plus you get to let all of your pent up anger out into killing it. It's probably therapeutic or something." I grinned. Okay, if that one doesn't lighten the mood, I seriously need to stop with the jokes. She half-smiled. Apparently I was getting good at cheering her up… it worked after all.

"Well, we've got to tell the pack, now, right?" she asked.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Forgot about that. Well, I'll phase and let them know. You can just … just wait here?"

"What? No. I'll do it too. I should – shouldn't I be there to tell them all? I'm the one who talked to Charlie."

"Alright, we need to phase then. Leah, do you think you know how to change forms?" She stared blankly. I smiled at her. "You just let your emotions spill out, feel the shiver down your spine, feel that heat inside of you and let it build up… and it'll come. It's natural, instinctive. It'll be easy for you, I know it. You're a natural – way better than the others."

She frowned and tried to concentrate.

"Leah, wait, not just now!" I said with a laugh. "You're going to rip all your clothes!"

"Ugh, right. So, what do I …?" she muttered, irritated and confused.

"Well, uhm, this is the awkward bit," I half-laughed again. "You sort of have to… take off your clothes… and then phase. In private, of course! We – uh, I won't be watching, or anything. I'll be somewhere else doing the same thing. And, well, I usually tie my shorts around my wrist, so when I phase back to human I have some clothes to put on.

"Okay," she said uncertainly.

"It gets easier, starts to feel more natural," I insisted, trying to comfort her.

"If you say so," she muttered.

"Alright, I'm just gonna go out into the forest… to phase, I mean. Because, well I'm too large to fit through the door when I'm, you know. So, yeah … I'll just… do that. And you can … yeah… okay. Okay?"

She smiled at how stupid I sounded. I laughed, and then went out of the house to phase. As soon as I phased I was engulfed in the thoughts and feelings of the pack mind. I could see flashing images of forest as the others ran patrols.

_Hey, Jake's here! Where's the she-wolf?_

He had to stop calling her that.

_Why, Jake? That's what she is!_

_Knock it off, Paul. _

_Geez, Sam, I'm only trying to have a laugh._

_Well, stop._ _It's not funny. What's wrong, Jacob? _He could probably sense how anxious I was, and knew it was serious.

_Is my sister okay?_

_She's fine, Seth. But she just got a phone call from Bella's father._

I could feel them all getting tense.

_Well, what did he say?_

I looked around, wondering what was taking Leah so long. Maybe she hadn't been able to phase? Should I check to see if –

_For God's sake, Jake! This is more important than that. What did he say? _Said Paul, his mental 'voice' filled with irritation.

_Oi, lay off of Jake._

_Thanks Seth, but I can handle myself. Paul's no match for me._

_Oh, you wanna bet?_

_Be nice, boys. There's a lady around._ Jared's 'voice' said, dripping with humor.

_Leah!_

_Alright, enough of this. Leah, Jacob, what happened? What did Charlie say?_

_Didn't Jake tell you?_

_No. What did Charlie say?_ Sam was clearly in full Alpha-mode.

_Bella is back. _

They had already guessed that was it, but once it had been confirmed by Leah, there was just complete chaos, with everyone thinking different things at the same time. The underlying tone was panic.

_Wait, are_ they_ back then?_

_If they are, we'll have to pull in our patrols._

_Yeah, we can't be caught on their land._

_Then we've got to find out immediately._

_I can't believe those leeches made it back alive! They all should have just died._

_They might not be back._

_Whatever... it's a good thing. This way we get to be the ones to kill them!_

_Sweet!_

_They might not be back…_

_Get real, Seth. They're back. I can feel it._

_No you can't, moron._

_Shut up Jared!_

_All of you be quiet!_ Sam screamed. _Paul, control yourself._

_Sorry. Can't help it. I was getting bored with just that red head. She keeps running away. Maybe now we'll get some real action!_

_The treaty still stands, idiot! Right Sam?_

_Yes. They haven't broken any of the rules. There's no reason to harm them._

_No reason? How about for being great big sparkly bloodsuckers? Is that a good enough reason?_

_No, Paul._

_Then how about for smelling worse than Paul's feet after a night in the forest?_

_Hey – was that really necessary?_

_Yes._

I sighed and laughed at the same time. It was all pretty entertaining, but it got old after a while. I looked over at Leah and couldn't tell if she was finding this amusing or overwhelming. She seemed to be laughing…

_Don't worry, the girly can deal with it. She'll have to get used to it, anyway._

_Shut it, Paul!_

_He's right, Jacob. _That was Leah.

_Whatever. I'm phasing back. I'm going to see if my dad has any news yet._

_I don't think Charlie's told him, Jake. My mom was just there, and she didn't say anything about it, so they don't know._

_Alright, then I'd better go and tell him._

_Yes, the council needs to be informed. We will have a meeting once we know if the bloodsuckers are truly back or not._

I phased back, away from where Leah was standing beside me, and put on my shorts. I had thought Leah would change back as well, but she didn't; she was still talking to Sam.

I put on my clothes and headed back into the house to wait for Leah. I didn't really know why I didn't go straight to see Billy. I just felt like I should talk to her first.

Leah came in a few minutes later. She seemed… upset. She started speaking before I could say anything, though.

"Well, Paul's certainly ready to kill some bloodsuckers," she said with a weak attempt at a laugh as she sat on the couch, as far away from me as possible. That hurt.

I decided not to ask questions and just go along with her. "Trust me, we all are. He was right about that red head… she was getting boring. She kept trying to get through us to get to Bella… and she was taking her time about it."

"So there was a vampire trying to kill Bella?"

"Yeah."

"Well, from what I hear, that's nothing new," Leah smirked.

'True," I laughed.

There was a short silence. Leah pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on her knees. As she stared off into space, deep in thought, I debated with myself mentally. Obviously I had to know what was wrong, what Sam had said. Or should I just let it be? That's stupid. She needed someone to talk to about it.

I looked at her troubled face and made my decision. "Leah, what's wrong?" I asked as I shuffled a little closer to her.

She looked up at me in surprise. "I don't know what you –"

"Please, Leah," I sighed gently, moving a little closer. "I'm not stupid. What happened? Did Sam say something?"

Her face twisted at the mention of his name. Was that anger, or grief? I wasn't sure.

"Nothing." She got up to leave the room, leave me, but I grabbed her hand to stop her. I hoped she would turn around to face me, but she didn't, so I stood up and stood behind her, and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Please, Leah. Don't do this. Talk to me. I can't help if I -"

"Of course you can't help!" she screamed as she turned to face me. I stepped back in shock. It was anger, not grief, that I had seen before.

"Leah –"

"How can you help me? How can anyone help me now? When I can hear his _every – damn –thought! _How god damn _sorry _he is! Trying to make me see that he's _not _the asshole I think he is! Just going on and on, making me listen to him! That arrogant little…" She stopped speaking.

"Leah …"

"But you know what's even worse than all of that? It's that bloody pity… I can feel it - it pours out of him – he thinks I'm some sort of – some broken little – he just -" She stopped again, breathing heavily, her feelings now beyond words. She looked away from me, her whole body shaking.

It was so heartbreaking. I took her in my arms and held her close, expecting her to cry, or push me away, but she did neither. She was fighting hard not to let any tears flow. I could feel her shaking. I wished I could do something more than just rub her back and hold her. But what could I say? What words could possibly make her feel better about all of this?

"It's alright Leah," I whispered into her ear. "He won't hurt you again like this, I promise. I'm here for you. I always will be. I won't let him hurt you." She wrapped her arms around me. I sat back down on the couch, still holding her. She sat with her legs curled up underneath her, and her head resting on my shoulder.

We sat there like that for a while. Eventually her head ended up more on my chest than my shoulder. I thought she must have fallen asleep, so I figured I should go and see my dad now, before she woke up. I lightly picked her up and carried her to her bed, laying her down gently. I gave her a kiss on the forehead and began pulling away from her. This time she was the one stopping me from leaving. She looked at me as she held my hand, preventing me from moving away.

"Oh, you're awake," I said, surprised, and I sat back down on the bed beside her.

"Of course I am," she mumbled drowsily. "Why are you leaving?"

I smiled at her. "I've got to go and see my dad. It's getting late and I have to catch him before he goes to sleep."

"Do you have to go?" she asked quietly.

"Yes. But I'll be quick. Go back to sleep."

"I wasn't sleeping," she sighed stubbornly.

"Fine," I whispered with a gentle laugh, touching her cheek with my hand. "Just … stay here, and stay safe, okay?"

She frowned. "I'm not a child, you know."

"Really?" I said with another light laugh. "You could have fooled me, shorty."

She pulled away from me and hit me on the shoulder, nearly pushing me off the bed. Pretty soon we were both laughing. "You're strong … for a girl. That _almost_ hurt," I teased her.

"Is that so, huh?" she said, making an effort to get up, giving me an evil smile. I could tell I might just regret taunting her, but she was laughing again, so I couldn't stop.

"Yup. I bet you couldn't hurt me even if you tried to."

She scowled at me, getting ready.

"But you wouldn't try to hurt me, right Lee? I'm too adorable to hit," I said, smiling sweetly at her. She rolled her eyes and got ready to punch me. I got ready to dodge her.

In that short moment of childish fun, we almost forgot about everything else. It was brilliant. And then we heard Seth; he was in the hall making a racket.

"Seth saved you," Leah grinned sleepily.

"Are you kidding? You're the one who was saved. You probably would have broken your hand trying to punch me!"

She glared at me and I jumped off the bed before she could hit me, laughing.

I walked into the hall, still laughing a little, and grinned at Seth. "What are you doing home, kid? I thought you were on patrols?"

"Sam's pulled in patrols. He doesn't need a fourth anymore, so I came home." Seth paused. "I thought you were going to see your dad?"

"Yeah. I was just leaving." I looked back at Leah in her room and smiled at her. "I'll be back before you know it!"

I ran out of the house, at full speed – the fastest I could go in human form. It already felt wrong to be away from Leah like this. To be running _away_ from her. I hoped that feeling would go away; I had a job to do. I had responsibilities. Sam didn't think about Emily all the time when we were on patrols, or hunting, or anything else. And Jared didn't think about that girl … what was her name again? Whatever… It must go away with time.

I didn't realize how fast I was going, but in what seemed like no time at all, I was standing just outside my house.

"Uh, Dad?" I called into the house, walking in uncertainly. It was my own home, yet it felt so strange being here, as if I had been away from it for months, or even years, instead of just a few days. So much had happened since the last time I had stood in this tiny little hall.

Billy wheeled his way in from the kitchen.

"Finally decided to come home and see your old man?" he laughed.

"Yeah, I guess," I said with a slight smile. I took a seat on the couch near him, and we sat there in silence. I wasn't sure what to say, really.

"How are you?" he finally asked me.

"I'm fine. Better than fine, really. I'm … well I'm _almost_ happy, now."

He smiled at me. "That's a lot better than before." Another silence. Again, he was the one to break it. "Leah Clearwater is a – a fine young woman. Even if she is a –" He sighed and stopped, frowning. I knew what he meant.

"I never knew it was possible for a woman," I said. I looked at Billy eagerly, hoping he would have more insight into this than I did.

"Neither did I," he shrugged. "There has never been a female werewolf before. But then, there has never been a pack of this size before, either. There have never been more than three wolves at a time, Jacob. I suppose anything is possible. But I'll tell you, Jake, we are all just as surprised as you are."

Well, that sure as hell didn't help at all.

"Damn. Well, it doesn't matter. I came here to tell you something."

"What is it? Did something happen?"

"Bella's back now."

Billy's face went pale. He took a second to compose himself again and said, "I see. And are the rest of _them_ back as well?"

"We don't know yet. Probably. Charlie called Leah's place to cancel some dinner or something, and he just said that Bella's back. We'll get more information later. Has Charlie called you or anything?"

"No. But perhaps I shall have to call him and find out more."

"Yeah. We need to know if the whole coven is back or not. Or if any of them are back at all."

I looked at Billy and I could tell that he wanted to say something else, but he restrained himself.

"What?" I sighed resignedly. I had a feeling I knew what was coming, and I knew wouldn't want to hear it.

"So … Now that Bella is back," he began awkwardly. I cut him off.

"Don't worry, dad. I'm fine. I won't - I have enough to deal with right now… Bella's made it very clear who her friends are. It doesn't matter anymore anyway."

Billy nodded in approval, though he didn't really seem to believe me. "So you will not be going to Forks to see her?" he added, sounding skeptical.

I hesitated. I wasn't sure. "Well, no. At least, not now. But if she comes here to see me I won't send her away… I think." She probably wouldn't come here anyway – she had her leeches back to talk to now; she didn't need me. It kind of bugged me to know that she wouldn't want to see me, but it didn't matter that much. It was probably better if I didn't have her headache right now on top of everything else.

Billy nodded. "Alright."

"Alright. I've got to go now, Dad."

"You're not going to stay here?"

"Well, um, no. It's just that… um… " I didn't really have an excuse. I just wanted to see her again. It made me anxious not to be around her.

"I understand," Billy smiled at me. "Go to her."

I grinned back and got up to leave.

"It's good to see you smiling again, Jacob."

"It's good to have something to smile about."

**A/N: Well, how was that? I tried to get some comedy going on in there, some playfulness and joking around. More like the wolves we know and love! If there was a third genre to this fic it would totally be comedy! And Leah will also start acting more and more like herself, gradually… at least I think she will! So hopefully it will all get more interesting. This chapter was kind of confusing. I wasn't sure how Leah or Jacob would react, but I think I did it alright. Let me know.**

**Review! Now! Do it. The longer the better, the more the merrier! If you don't review I honestly won't update. Seriously. I won't. Ok, I'll still update, but it will take longer… So just R-E-V-I-E-W!**

**Much love,**

**PSF**


	8. The Bloodsuckers Are Back In Town

**A/N: Alright, back with the next chappie. This one's a little special… It's half Jacob's POV and half Leah's POV. Ok, that's not all that special but still… It's different! Hopefully that will make up for the fact that this one is kinda short :/ Sorry. Enjoy it anyway!**

**Jacob**

I reached Leah's house expecting to find her asleep. I went straight to her room and opened the door a fraction. Leah was sitting up in bed, half asleep, fighting to keep her eyes open. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight, and Leah looked up at me. She frowned and said, "Are you laughing at me?"

I grinned. "Of course not."

"Liar," she muttered, lying back in her bed with a sigh.

"How come you're still awake, sleepyhead?" I asked her, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed, smirking.

"Wasn't sleepy," she mumbled, trying to get comfortable on her bed.

"Who's the liar now, huh?"

She didn't respond. I came closer to her.

"Were you maybe waiting up for me?" I asked softly, a teasing edge to my voice. I crouched beside her, my grin growing wider.

"Oh, shut up, Jake." She turned around so her back was facing me.

I laughed again and got up. "Fine, fine. I'll let you sleep, now. Goodnight, Leah."

"I told you I'm not sleepy!" she protested, turning back around to look at me. She looked both surprised and upset to see me standing up.

"You've got to be the most stubborn person I know, you know that?"

She gave me a lazy smile and motioned for me to sit on the bed beside her. I did as I was asked, and she immediately put her head on my lap and curled herself up facing me. I ran my hand through her hair a few times, contentment and warmth spreading around me. It felt like the rest of the world didn't exist anymore. Pretty soon Leah's breathing leveled off and she had fallen asleep, so I figured I should sleep as well.

I gently tried to get up without moving her too much, but – just as they did in all those lame chick flicks I hated, and just as she had the night before – she moved closer to me and tightened her arm around me, keeping me there. So I leaned back against the headboard and settled in for the night, still running my hand through her hair without really realizing it.

Once again sleep escaped me, and I sat there thinking about… well, everything. A lot had happened in the space of three days. Bella had left me to go off and die for_ it;_ I had imprinted on a girl; said girl had a breakdown, and then turned into a werewolf – which I didn't even think was _possible_ - and now Bella had come back, probably bringing with her the glittery little killing machines she loved so much. Wow… that _was_ a lot.

I hoped that Bella would call me, so that I could find out more about what was going on. Then I felt stupid for that, and I hoped she _wouldn't _call – it would be easier that way. I didn't really feel like talking to her, and Billy would find out everything from Charlie, anyway. Then I felt guilty for ignoring my best friend. Was she still my best friend, though? She had chosen the Cullens, my mortal enemies, over me. That was a pretty clear statement, wasn't it? Then I got angry at her for choosing them. But then I was glad she had, because now here I was, with Leah sleeping on my lap, and I had something to smile about again. But then… When Bella had had nothing to smile about, I had been there for her. Was it wrong to leave her alone now, because I had Leah? Well, she wasn't alone. She had her vampires. She didn't need me, right?

These thoughts raged in my head over and over as I switched from confused, to pissed off, to happy, and back to confused. I could feel a headache coming on.

**Leah**

I woke up the next day to the sound of snoring. For the second time in two days, I felt more comfortable than I had felt in ages, after the first proper nights of sleep I had had in a long time.

I didn't want to open my eyes and shatter what I knew was just an illusion of happiness, because of course it wasn't real. I had no right to be happy. I couldn't be happy. Especially not after everything that had happened - not after becoming a freaking _werewolf_.

I slowly turned my head and looked up at Jacob. He was sleeping in what looked like the most uncomfortable position in the world, sitting upright with his back resting on the headboard of my bed. Had he slept like that all night because of me? I started to feel a little guilty. But despite how uncomfortable and ridiculous he looked with his mouth hanging open, he also seemed peaceful. I didn't want to wake him, so I gently tried to remove his hand to get up. Of course, that didn't work. He shifted in his sleep, obviously disturbed. I sighed. Stupid heightened wolf-senses.

I stayed there, then, wondering how long it would take for him to get up already. I hated sitting still and doing nothing. It gave me too much time to think. I didn't like that. In fact, I hated it. I tried to avoid it. Because I usually ended up on _him_. With _her_. Emily. My cousin. Who was going to be my freaking_ maid of honor_. God, that pissed me off.

It probably wasn't a good idea to get pissed off, what with all of the exploding out of my skin into a giant monster and all that. It was like I was the God damn Incredible Hulk. _You won't like me when I'm mad. _Hah. At least werewolf was cooler than giant green monster. I had to make an effort not to laugh out loud. What was wrong with me? Why the hell was I laughing when I should still be freaked out as hell?

I guess… it helped that Jacob was there. His presence soothed me, or something. I felt more relaxed when he was around. Maybe that's why I didn't want him to leave last night, and the night before. Not that I would ever tell him that or anything. But he'd probably see it in my head anyway. Ugh.

Wait, shit, what did I say last night? I was so damn tired, I wasn't even thinking. Did I ask him to stay here with me _again? _Damn_. _What was wrong with me? Why was I so weak like that? It was pathetic; I didn't _need_ him there. It sure as hell wasn't like me.

I got up abruptly and got off the bed. Jacob woke with a start. "Wha – what's wrong? Are you okay? What happened? What?"

I rolled my eyes. "Relax, Jacob. Go back to sleep."

"Huh? No… no, I'm up now." He stretched and yawned, standing up. "You're okay though, right?"

"I'm fine, Jacob."

"Cool," he muttered, following me out of the room.

"Do you intend to follow me into the bathroom as well?"

"Oh, uh, no. Sorry," he said sheepishly, turning to go to the kitchen. I shook my head and smiled after him.

I heard the phone ringing while I was brushing my teeth. I heard Seth picking it up. With my newly-heightened senses, I would have been able to hear the conversation if I wanted to, but the second I heard that it was Sam on the other end, I tried to tune it all out. I didn't really want to hear what he had to say. Of course, the aforementioned heightened senses didn't really go along with what I wanted. Despite my best efforts, I heard bits of conversation.

Pretty soon Seth handed the phone off to Jacob. I heard the word 'bloodsuckers' used a lot. Jake ended the lovely little chat with an "Of course" and then something else. When I made my way to the hall, Jacob wasn't there. I stared blankly at Seth and my mom, who were both eating breakfast.

"Sam just called. Jake had to go meet with him," Seth answered my unasked question.

"Oh," I sighed, not letting my disappointment show on my face. I had some practice in hiding my emotions. "Did something happen?"

"No," he shrugged. "Just got some more info about the Cullens. Not sure what it is, but I'm thinking… they're back."

"Well, that sucks. But why does that mean Jake has to see Sam?"

"Jake is sort of Sam's second-in-command, so he needs to talk with him and stuff, I guess. It's no big. He should be back soon. Oh, unless Sam makes him run patrols. Yeah, he'll probably have to run patrols. He hasn't in the past couple of days 'cause he's been hanging around here. Paul won't shut up about how unfair that is and how tired he is of running double shifts to cover. Plus, Quil and Embry prefer doing patrols with Jake. Can't blame them; Jake's way more fun to be around than _Paul._ Well, anyone is more fun to be around than Paul. His temper is just insane! And –"

"Seth, dear, give your sister a chance to breathe," mom said with a little laugh, throwing a worried look my way. I took a second to process it all.

"A little less of the useless random info would be nice, twerp," I grimaced.

"Oh, right. Sorry," he sheepishly.

"Right. So, Jacob will be gone for a while?"

"I think so, yeah, if he's on patrols. Hey, speaking of which, you're gonna have to go on patrols too, soon! Yeah, you can run with me and Jake, it'll be awesome. Hey, we could have a race! I bet I'm faster than you!" Seth was grinning like an idiot. He kept on babbling about God knows what, until mom stopped him again. Was the kid physically incapable of giving one word answers or something? I pretty much ignored him, my thoughts lingering on the first part of his little monologue.

_You're gonna have to go on patrols too, soon_

Oh, God. That did not sound like fun.

**A/N: There you go! It's not all that great, but hey, it's something! I'm trying to ease Leah into this whole pack life thing, which is frustrating! I seriously wish I could skip ahead to where she's all settled in and her normal self and everything's easier to write about, but of course I won't do that to you all! Hopefully in the next chappie she'll be running patrols, and then the one after that she'll be joking around and insulting the rest of the pack like the Leah we all know and love - but no promises. I know as much about the next chapters as you do. I don't really plan them, they just sort of happen! (Does that make me a bad author? :S) Well, now that this pointlessly long a/n is finished, you all need to REVIEW! Like, now. Do it! You know you want to. Pretty please? With a cherry and everything.**

**R-E-V-I-E-W!**

**PSF**


	9. The Wonderful World of the Pack Mind

_So we just… keep running around in circles?_ I asked uncertainly.

I had been a wolf for just over two weeks now, and it wasn't all that bad anymore. Well, except when I got mad at things like that stupid jam jar that wouldn't open and I accidentally exploded into a wolf. It was even worse when Paul was running patrol at the time I would lose control, because he would piss me off even more so it was harder to calm myself enough to phase back. Even worse than that, though, was when Sam would be there, and he would show that stupid concern of his, like he still cared about what was happening with me. God, I didn't know if that made me want to cry or rip his head off. Other than that, though, it wasn't so bad.

And then Jake had told me it was time to start patrolling. _Joy._ My life just kept getting better and better.

_Yeah, that's basically it. You just stick to your half of the circle, though. It's easier that way. Keep an eye out for anything unusual, particularly bloodsuckers_, Jake replied, laughing slightly at the tone of my voice –er, thoughts.

_Well, if the brain-dead (aka Paul) can do this, how hard can it be?_ I snorted, already running along the path on the ground that had been created by the patrols. _It's not so bad… I guess._

_Told ya._

_No need to sound so smug, you jerk._

_Sure, sure._

I quickened my pace, seeing how fast I could go. Back in high school – when things were relatively normal – I used to run track. And I was good. I wondered how fast I could go like this.

_Very fast. _I could feel Jake's grin as he thought that, through this weird mental link thing we had going on, even though Jacob was running on the other side of the Rez. _Though, of course, being as amazing as I am, I'm the fastest in the pack. But you can take second fastest. Probably._

_Hah!_ Then I really kicked it up, running as fast as I could, which was probably not a good idea since I wasn't entirely sure how to put on the brakes on this thing – the 'thing' being myself. This was actually kinda fun, in some twisted way. I was totally faster than - _Crap!_ I thought, just as I smashed into a tree that was stupid enough to be in my way. _That stung. _I was fine, the tree not so much.

_God, Leah, are you alright?_

_I'm fine, just a little bruised. Takes more than a tree to bring me down. Whoa… what's that weird feeling?_

_That would be you healing yourself. We tend to do that when we're injured. It'll pass in a second._

_Huh. Guess that comes in handy._

_You have nooo idea!_

I took off again, this time at a saner pace, though still faster than I could ever have run 'back in the day'. In an effort to drown out Jacob's oh-my-God-I'm-so-worried-about-Leah thoughts, and to do the job right, I really looked at the forest around me. Tree. Tree. Pine cone. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Squirrel. Tree. Pine cone. More trees. Yeah, this was dull. What was I even looking for?

Again, I could hear Jacob laughing at my internal monologue. _Try smelling. Take a nice big sniff._

I did. It smelt very forest-y, for obvious reasons. Like pine, grass, wild flowers, and a hint of ocean coming all the way from the beach. It was quite nice, actually.

_Good. Vampires smell a lot different._

Through the weird mental link thing he sent memories or whatever they were of the vampire smell. I scrunched up my nose – snout, whatever – and shook my head in disgust. _Ugh, that's horrible. It's so… sweet! Do they sleep in a freaking bed of honey and roses or something? God. My nose is still stinging and I'm not even really smelling it!_

_Trust me, it's ten times worse when it's the real thing._

_Ugh._

We were both quiet for a while. Or, rather, we were thinking to ourselves, not at each other, even though we could hear each others' thoughts anyway. I made the most of this not-entirely-boring patrolling thing, enjoying the freedom and the speed – Seth was right about that.

_Speaking of Seth,_ Jake interrupted, and I decided not to mention the fact that I hadn't 'spoken' of Seth, but was thinking about him to myself, _I should let him and the others know they can come and patrol now._

_What d'you mean?_

_Well, I sorta told them to wait 'till you were a bit more comfortable with this whole thing before they phased too. It's a lot more confusing, and annoying, with four other people in your head._

_Ugh._

_Is that your only response to everything? _He asked a little too smartly for my liking.

_As a matter of fact, it is, smart ass._

Jacob's voice then disappeared from my head, before he could say anything else annoying. Good for him. I ran on in silence, liking the peace and quiet. I guessed he had turned back to human to tell the others they could 'phase' now. Wait, who were the others? If others included Paul I was _so _not going to do this.

Before I had too much time to worry about this, though, Jake was back, followed closely by Seth and two other boys, neither of whom was Paul. Thankfully. I was pretty sure they were Quil and Embry. Jake's school friends.

_You're right to be thankful Paul isn't here,_ snorted a voice, I think Embry.

_Yup, he's Embry. I'm Quil._

_Right._

_How's it goin', sis? _asked Seth, annoyingly happy as always.

_That's the perfect way to put it – annoyingly happy._

_I am not _annoyingly happy._ I'm just the right amount of happy, thank you very much. Not my fault you all are depressed or whatever._

_Shut it, kid. I'd hate to have to pulverize you in front of your sister._

_Be my guest, Embry._

_You're a great sister, you know that? _ thought Jacob sarcastically. Seth laughed.

_Yeah, I'm the best there is._

_And I'm the Queen of England, _Seth snorted.

_Hey, now, I thought we all agreed on our last patrol that Jake was the queen of England._

I burst out laughing. Mentally, at least. I wasn't sure werewolves could laugh.

_What the hell? Why drag me into this?_

_Well I figured it was only fair, since the rest of us were being insulted, that you should be involved as well._

_Gee, thanks, Quil. You're such a good friend._

_You know it, bro._

All boys are idiots. Or maybe it was just this lot. This had to be some kind of karma coming to bite me in the ass. I was being punished for some terrible sin I had committed in a past life, by having to share all of their idiotic thoughts. I wonder what I had done in that past life. It must have been bad.

_Ouch, she-wolf. That really hurt._

_I'm glad it did, Embry._

I must have killed someone to deserve this.

_Well, that wouldn't really surprise me. You seem like the murderer type._

_Yeah, you really don't wanna piss her off. This one time, I entered her room without knocking, and caught her making out with Sam. She threw her lamp at me. _

Or maybe I didn't kill just one person. Maybe I had been a serial killer. Yes, that had to be it.

_Whatever. It didn't even hit you, you wuss._

_I was thirteen, Leah! And scarred for life, I might add. If I need therapy later on, you're paying for it. Oh, _and_ you made me pay for a new lamp!_

_And the lesson learnt from that story is, don't piss off Leah, or she'll throw something at you._

The next five hundred hours (or that's what it felt like, at least) passed in a similarly annoying manner. So much for the peace and quiet of the forest. Even though we never so much as saw each other as we each ran around our own little parts of the patrol circle, they kept up a constant stream of irritating chat, with topics ranging from the latest Halo game to Star Wars to sports cars.

I must have been a freaking terrorist in that damn past life.

_We're not that bad. At least, not all of us, _Jacob reasoned.

_Yeah, I'm totally loveable._

_Sure Quil, keep telling yourself that._

_More loveable than you, Call._

_Fine. You're loveable. _I'm_ ruggedly handsome._

_Are you at all capable of remaining silent for more than two seconds? _I asked tiredly.

_Well, sometimes we can go for like, three seconds, if we really try, but mostly, no, _Embry replied.

_Is that supposed to be funny, kid?_

_Who you callin' a kid, old lady?_

_You, you annoying sack of –_

_Whoa, play nice, children, _Jake said, trying to keep the peace. _No need for name calling._

_Sure, _dad.

_She started it._

_What are you, eight?_

_Seth's the youngest here and he's the only one not acting like a child, _Jake reprimanded us. Seth bristled at the compliment from Jacob, who was basically his God.

_Are you seriously telling us off? _Quil asked in disbelief.

_What has this girl done to you?_

_Hey, leave me out of this, Embry. _Was I really growling, just then?

_Come on, don't piss her off, Embry, _Jake sighed. _She's new. You know what happens if you keep getting her angry._

_What, she's already phased. It's not like she's suddenly gonna burst into _human_ or something._

So now it was Paul _and _Embry that I didn't like in this 'pack' of ours. This thought – even though it was supposed to be private - caused Jake, Seth and Quil to burst out laughing.

_Hey, don't compare me with _Paul. _I'm not _that _bad._

_You are from where I'm standing._

_Whatever._

_Nice comeback._

_Nice face._

_They just keep getting better and better, don't they?_

_Shut up._

_Come on, Leah, knock it off. You're ruining the whole wolf thing for me, _Seth whined.

_Well, gee, I'm sorry for ruining your fun_ _by turning into – into THIS. I'm sorry it inconvenienced you so damn much! I'll try not to do it next time! _Okay, now I was getting pissed off. That sounded slightly more aggressive that I had intended.

Seth whimpered, and I could feel that he was sorry for what he said, even a little ashamed of himself.

_Leah, calm down. He's just a kid. He didn't mean it like that, _Jake consoled me.

_Yeah, yeah. Aren't we done with this patrolling thing yet? It's been like a million hours already._

_More like ten, _Embry informed me.

_And we usually go for twelve, _Quil added, though he, at least, was actually trying to be helpful and fill me in.

_But if you're tired you can phase back, _Seth suggested, sounding like a concerned little brother. _We can -_

_The hell I am! I just don't want to be stuck here in all of your heads for another two hours!_

Again, because of this stupid mental thing I could feel how upset Seth got when I yelled back at him, though I wasn't really yelling at _him _specifically. He should know me well enough to know that I yelled at basically everyone. It was just what I did. Seth got upset too easily. And now I felt guilty. Great.

_Ah, the ice princess has a heart after all._

_C'mon, Embry, cool it. Please._

_Alright, alright. I'm sorry, Jake. It's just been a while since I've had someone new to bug. _Embry was grinning. _I'm sorry Leah, _he rolled his eyes. _You're not that bad. At least you have the brains to come back at me with some halfway decent insults, unlike these two geniuses I have for best friends._

I laughed at that. Alright, so Embry wasn't _that _bad, then.

_Hey now what's that supposed to mean? Are you calling me and Quil stupid?_

_That's exactly what I was saying. And if I was wrong about that, then I wouldn't have to explain that to you._

_Don't make me come over there and kick your furry little butt._

_Oh, I'd like to see you try, Ateara. I could use a good fight right now!_

_Maybe we can double team him, _Jake grinned.

_Yeah, 'cause it would take the two of you to bring me down!_

_Puh-lease, loser. If I could take Paul, I can take you with my eyes closed._

Huh. When did Jake fight Paul? That was something I wish I could have seen.

_Oh but you can, girlie. Sit back and enjoy the show. Or, er, don't, keep running patrol – ah, you get what I mean._ And Embry proceeded to show me the memories of Paul, losing control as usual, and Jake, with Bella standing in shock behind him (which surprised me a little) as he phased in mid-air (which was actually pretty impressive). Then they had run off into the forest, with Sam running right after them, and then I got Jake's point of view as he slashed at Paul to keep him down, until Sam did that creepy thou-shall-obey-thy-Alpha command thingie Jake had told me about, and Paul stopped.

_Good to see you put him in his place, _I said, somewhat happily.

_I'm glad that makes you so happy. I'll have to beat up Paul more often._

_Yes! And we'll all cheer you on, bro!_

_Damn, speak of the devil!_

_You mean handsome devil. _Yes, Paul had phased in to take over patrols. I knew that meant Sam wouldn't be far behind, which meant I wanted to get out.

_Aw, c'mon, she-wolf. Can't avoid him forever. Not when we're all one big happy pack, and you keep losing it over jam jars that won't open and silly little burnt brownies. Speaking of which, you shouldn't cook. It's not your thing._

_Jake, I'm gonna take you up on your offer from before. Now would be a good time to start. Beating Paul up, I mean._

_Hah. As if._

_You know he can take you, _Seth laughed.

_Watch it kid. Maybe Jake could land a blow or two, but I could beat you seven ways from Sunday without getting a scratch on me. So cool it._

Seth mentally rolled his eyes, apparently used to all the threats as he was the youngest of the pack. I, however, reacted differently.

_You lay one finger on him, Paul, and I swear to –_

_Whoa, Leah, he's just kidding. Hey, relax. Even _Paul _wouldn't hurt someone from his own pack. And he knows Sam would kill him if he tried._

_Look who went all protective big sister on me. I'm touched, sis, but I can take care of myself, you know._

_Not now, Seth. And no, you can't. Well, as pleasant as this has been, I'm heading home now. We're done with our patrol, right?_

_Yeah. We can all head back now. Where are Sam and Jared? _Jake asked Paul as we all ran back home.

Paul snorted. _Jared had a, uh, incident. _And we saw it.

_No way! _Quil exclaimed.

_And another one bites the dust._

_What?_

_Another wolf falls victim to the deadly imprint, _joked Embry, which earned him a jab at his shoulder from Jacob, as they were now running side-by-side.

_That makes it three out of eight. Who's gonna be next? _Seth laughed.

_Isn't this thing supposed to be, like, really rare or something? Almost half of us have imprinted already! _

_Quit whining, Quil. I'm sure it'll happen to you as well. _

_The hell it will, Jake. I've already seen all the girls our age on the Rez,_ and_ down in Forks, _and _up on the Makah Rez. No imprint for me._

_You do know that, despite what your grandfather says, the reservation isn't the whole world, right? There are other places to see girls._

_Hey, who says it even has to be a girl? Maybe Quil will be the first wolf to imprint on another dude! I mean, if girls can become wolves now, then anything is possible!_

_Shut up, Embry. I hope the girl you imprint on is a giant pain in the ass like you. It would serve you right._

Before Embry had the chance to reply, Sam and Jared phased into the world of the pack mind. As if there wasn't already enough chaos going on in here.

_Sorry we're late, guys. You heading home?_

Guys. Yeah, 'cause I'm a guy too, right? Oh, crap, they can hear me. Shit. Stop thinking. How the hell am I supposed to stop thinking? Damn it!

Thankfully, Jacob chose to intervene and ignored that awkward moment. The others followed his lead, though Sam did seem a little flustered about it. _Yeah, Sam. Paul's running the full circuit right now._

_Yeah, so hurry up and join me already._

_We're on our way._

I tried to think as little as possible, so that I would go unnoticed among the loud babble of everyone else's thoughts. Of course, Paul, being the jerk he is, noticed that I didn't want to be noticed, and brought this to everyone's attention.

_Why so quiet, wolf-girl? _He teased. I groaned. Almost home. Almost home. Hey, why were Quil and Embry still following me and Seth and Jacob to my house?

_We're coming over. Duh._

_Oh, for the love of all that is holy… WHY?_

_Well, you see, we quite like hanging out with Jake here. But he doesn't seem to want to be anywhere that you are not _(Was it my imagination, or did Sam just skip a beat while he was running? Whatever.). _So since you're going to your place, we all are. Comprende?_

_Fantastic. I get to phase out so I don't have you in my head, and you decide to go and invite yourselves to my house instead. Fan-freaking-tastic._

Seth, unlike me, seemed excited at this idea. He was already imagining an epic Halo-war on the Xbox with his little boyfriends. Why can't they just go _out _on a date like regular people and leave me in peace in my own house.

This thought of mine drew a lot of laughs from Jared and Paul. How could I keep forgetting they could hear all my thoughts?

_EW! THAT IS SO WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS, LEAH! _Seth's mental voice suddenly got very loud.

_He's a little kid, for crying out_

_Quil? Seriously, that's what you find wrong about it? WE'RE STRAIGHT. _

_You sure you don't have a little Brokeback Mountain action going on without us all knowing, Embry?_

_I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, LEAH CLEARWATER!_

_My, my, a little defensive, are we? Maybe a little _too _defensive?_

_Damn, she's got you there, bro._

_Shut up, Jared. Just 'cause you've got a girl now. Pfft._

Pure happiness radiated from Jared's thoughts as his imprint was brought up, effectively drowning out the whole Embry-is-gay joke we had going on. He became insufferably happy, and started obsessing over her. Apparently, her name was Kim, and she had been in one of his classes forever, and he'd never noticed her. She'd always crushed on him, though. Today, for some reason, he had looked at her, and boom. Fate, or whatever you wanted to call it. Pfft. If the same thing hadn't happened to Jacob, with me, then I would have been making fun of Jared.

_Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find another reason to make fun of me later on, Leah._

_True. But she doesn't even need a reason, man. She'll do it anyway._

_That is very true. Now, if you don't mind, I'll be phasing back, since we are finally home. And if I catch any of you looking at me while I'm changing I will rip you apart limb from limb. _That last part was for Embry, Quil and Jacob's benefit.

_Ew, Leah. Can I remind you to please not say gross stuff like that when I – you know, your _little brother _– can hear it?_

_Whatever. I didn't ask you to be in my head, did I? _And then I phased out, behind some trees in the forest near our house, hopefully far enough that the others couldn't see me. I then untied the little bundle of clothing around my ankle and changed into the stupid dress. I hated wearing dresses, but as I had learned from my practicing the past few weeks, one item of clothing was a lot easier to carry around than two. I prayed to God the boys were also phased and dressed, and went out of the forest. Thankfully, they were already inside, so I figured they must have had clothes on. Oh, God… if they were sitting naked on my couch I would murder them. That was a mental image I never wanted to get in my mind.

**A/N: Sorry it's been so long! I was busy. Homework, exams, matches, having a life... Well I hope you liked it! I personally think it's pretty funny, but I'm usually wrong, so let me know what you think... Review!**

**PS: I'm working on the next L&J chapter too. (I haven't given up on it!) It's just sooo long that I keep stopping. It will be done eventually though, I promise!**

**R-E-V-I-E-W!**


	10. Game Time, and It's On!

**A/N: First off, sorry for how long it's been. It's been ages. I have valid reasons but instead of boring you with them, I'll just let you read on. Sorry in advance if there are any typos. I wanted to get this out immediately, so didn't really proof read. Hopefully it's alright.**

**Enjoy!**

I walked into the house. Thankfully, they were all fully dressed. Actually, they weren't, but they all had shorts on, which was all I could hope for these days. If the past few weeks had taught me anything, it was that these guys wore as little clothing as was socially acceptable. This got less awkward, eventually.

That didn't mean I was going to start walking around topless – that would be way too weird – but it _did _mean that I started wearing dresses, which I didn't particularly enjoy. I hated dresses.

I didn't always hate them. There was a time when I didn't particularly mind them, but ever since I went through my mad growth spurt (yet another wonderful side effect of the werewolf thing) they made me feel like more of a giant freak. My legs looked unbelievably long in them. Stupid dresses.

I went straight to the kitchen, ignoring the idiots as they turned on the Xbox or whatever it was. I looked into the fridge. Empty. I sighed. This was happening far too often for my liking.

Werewolves get hungry a lot. It's hard enough to keep enough food in the house for two werewolves, and then Jake was always around, which made it three werewolves (Not that I really minded him hanging around). Three was still relatively manageable for my mom's food sources, but when you add Embry and Quil – the deadly duo – who always came over to 'hang with Jake' or whatever, well it was getting pretty much impossible to expect any food to be left over. Ever.

I groaned, and Jake came right over.

"What's the matter, Lee?" he asked.

"I'm hungry," I sighed. "But, as usual, there's no food left in this place. You lot saw to that before we went on patrol today. Thanks for that."

Jacob laughed at that. I didn't see what he found funny, but whatever. I scowled at him and turned away. He just laughed a little more.

"Can't you take your Halo war somewhere else?"

"First of all, It's Call of Duty, not Halo…" Jake began, and I rolled my eyes. "Okay, okay. Alright, you lot," he said to the guys. "Let's clear out of here before Leah kicks us out."

"But we just started playing!" Quil whined.

"Well, you can go over to my place and continue there. Happy?"

"Sweet!" grinned Quil, already packing up the game.

"Wait, bro. You're coming too, right?" Embry asked suspiciously, signaling Quil to stop.

"Um…"

"Aw, Jake! Come on! We only come here to hang out with you!"

"Hey!" cried Seth, but he was ignored.

"Yeah, and even then we're lucky if you talk to us for five minutes! It's not fair. If we go to your place, you've got to come too!" Quil declared angrily. "I can beat up Embry anytime!"

"You wish, dude," scoffed Embry, but he, too insisted that Jake come with them.

Jacob rolled his eyes. I tried not to laugh. He looked at me pleadingly, and that did it. I burst out laughing.

"Feel free to go. I wouldn't mind the peace and quiet," I said with a smile. Jacob sighed. "Fine, I'll go," he conceded. The others cheered, and as they finished packing up their things Jake turned to me and asked quietly, "Will you come too?"

"Uh, no. The whole point of this is to give me some quiet time, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but… Please? I know that Billy wants to see you, he hasn't since the funeral, you know. And, plus there's bound to be loads of food there, since I haven't been over there to eat it lately!" He was grinning cheerfully now. How could I say no to that stupid cheesy grin on his face?

"Alright, alright. I'll come too."

"Brilliant!" He turned around and told the guys, "Prepare to get your asses kicked. I haven't played for ages and I'm thread to kill!" And thus began a whole conversation of taunts and game-related jeering, most of which I found quite amusing, even though it was pretty lame.

They were still going as we reached Jake's house and walked in. Billy looked pleasantly surprised to see us all. Seth, Embry and Quil set up the game while Jake went to raid the fridge for me. I walked over to Billy to say hello, because he was looking at me in a way that seemed to indicate that he wanted to talk to me.

"Hi Billy. How are you?"

"I'm fine Leah. How are you?"

"I'm alright. Just getting used to all of this… stuff."

He gave a dry chuckle. "Yes, this 'stuff' can be a lot to deal with." There was an awkward silence. Billy was the first to break it. "You look well, considering everything that has happened to you in the last few weeks."

"Uh, yeah. I'm taking it a bit at a time. I just started patrolling today. Wasn't so bad. The boys talk a lot, though."

Right on cue, Embry began shouting something about kills or scores or something.

"Yes, they do that." Billy smiled. "Listen, Leah. I don't know how much you know about imprinting, but I just want you to know… it's had a good effect on Jacob." He was about to say something else, but just then Jacob came over with a loaded plate of food.

"Brilliant, I'm starving!" I dug in, and my short, awkward conversation with Billy came to an end. I didn't want to be rude, but I didn't really want to hear more about the whole imprinting thing. Jake and I tried not to bring it up too much. It always made me a bit uncomfortable. Plus, I was _really hungry._

**Jacob**

Leah looked like I had saved her by handing her the plate of food. I knew she didn't like to talk about the imprinting thing. I know she didn't find it creepy like she used to, and she didn't mind me hanging around all the time – I'm pretty sure she actually like that, despite what she said – but still. I knew it made her uncomfortable to talk about it, so I intervened.

Billy drifted away, and I sat beside Leah at the table. Before I could get a word in, dumb and dumber called me over to play.

"C'mon, Jake. I already owned Embry and Seth a million times over. I need a challenge," Quil teased.

I rolled my eyes, and Leah smirked.

"What's funny?"

"The thought of Quil beating you."

"Oh, really now? We'll see about that. Hey, Quil, let me show you how it's done!" I then turned back to her and added, "Why don't you give it a try too? I'd take it easy on you, I promise!"

"Oh, please!" she said, leaving her plate of food and following me to the small hall where the Xbox was set up. Game time. This would be fun.

"Hey, she doesn't suck as much as you would think," Seth warned me. "She's actually pretty good.

Embry and Quil laughed.

"I think I can handle it," I smirked.

Embry, Quil, Leah and I played together. I killed Quil soo many times, it actually got boring for me, but Embry and Seth really enjoyed it. They cheered me on the whole time, and were teasing Quil.

I had made up my mind not to attack Leah too much, obviously, but after a few minutes of game time it became clear she didn't need my help! Embry and Quil barely managed to get her, and she had her fair share of kills. She was seriously good at sniping people! After killing Embry for the sixth time (this time by stabbing him) she said, "This is way too easy!

"When did you get so good?" I asked, surprised.

"I've played a little in my down time, and it's fun beating Seth once in a while. Besides, you don't need to be that great to beat you lot. You all suck!"

"Oh, it's on now. For real!"

"Should I be scared?" she teased.

"Oh, yeah! I've been taking it easy on you – 'cause you're a girl, you know – but now I'm gonna go for it. Get ready to die!"

It was the most fun I'd ever had playing Call of Duty. She was actually pretty good – better than Quil! Definitely not better than me, but she was almost as good. Almost. Not that I would admit that to her.

Right as I was about to shoot her in the head, the phone rang. We ignored it as usual, but it did distract me enough to let Leah sneak in and slit my throat.

"Damn it!" I screamed at the TV, as Billy picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Billy answered.

I had just respawned and was out for blood. I found the perfect spot to wait for her.

Billy gave a loud sigh, just as Leah was about to come around a corner, ready for me to shoot her down. Billy called out to me, "Jake. It's Bella, again. She wants to talk."

Once again, my attention was diverted, and Leah ended up killing me.

"Ahh, no!" I yelled. "How'd you know where I was? Were you looking at my screen? It's not fair, I was distracted!"

"All's fair in love and war, Jake," Leah replied smugly. "Stop being such a sore loser."

"Jacob, Bella's on the line."

"Just tell her I don't wanna talk. I've got to kick Leah's furry little butt right now," I replied, not really paying much attention. No way was I gonna be distracted again!"

"Bella, he doesn't want to talk to you right now," Billy replied into the phone, and after a few more seconds of conversation, he hung up. He then came over to us and laughed as Leah killed me once again, and I screamed at the TV.

"Alright, Jacob, why don't you let Seth play for a while?" he said. "I want to talk to you."

"Sure, sure. Just a sec. Ahhh…YES! Got you! Hah!" I got up triumphantly, and Leah groaned. Seth eagerly took the controller from me.

"What's up, dad?" I asked as I wheeled him outside, so we could talk in relative privacy. I was sure the others were too absorbed in the game to pay any attention.

"I want to talk to you… about Bella."

**A/N: Does that count as a cliffhanger? You know how I absolutely LOVE ending on those Hope you liked it. Did anyone pick up on the fact that the "I don't want to talk to Bella" thing is actually in New Moon? Right near the the end, so I thought I'd throw it in to make it canon-ish.**

**Did it seem like they were having fun like ordinary teenagers and stuff? I hope so! Sorry if some of the gaming analogies were weird (or just plain wrong) but hey, I tried. It made sense to me, at least.**

**PS. Check out my profile page or whatever it's called. It usually has some info on when you can expect the next updates, so you guys aren't left guessing. **

**PPS. I've changed the genre to Romance and Humor, because let's face it, the hurt/comfort is only near the beginning, and I can't help making it funny! It's what i do best!**

**Now…**

**REVIEW!**


	11. What Do I Do Now?

**A/N: Alright, so I got a bunch of reviews, for which I am VERY grateful, but not as many as I would have liked. I guess I deserve that for being MIA for God knows how long. Anyway here's another kinda short (but hopefully amazing) chapter.**

**Enjoy x**

I never knew what to expect when it came to my dad, but I never thought he would bring up Bella. Not after what she had done, and when I had so much other stuff to deal with.

"What about Bella?" I asked apprehensively.

"I know you don't like to talk about her, Jacob," Billy began, sensing my change in tone, "and you know I wouldn't bring this up if it weren't important."

"Sure, sure. Just spit it out, dad. What's wrong?"

"I'm worried about her, Jacob."

Of course he was.

"I know dad, I am too. But she's chosen the leeches. There's nothing I can do about that."

"No, there's nothing you _want _to do. She called again today, son. She wants to talk to you. She would listen to you, I'm sure. I know you don't feel the same way about Bella, and I of all people know that's a good thing, but you can't just leave her with _them_, Jacob."

"But there really _isn't _anything I can do!" I exclaimed, working hard to keep my voice down. "Look, dad, they left her once already. It's only a matter of time before they move on again. They've already been here too long. People will start to notice they don't age pretty soon, and then they'll leave her alone. Happy?"

"No, Jacob, I don't think they will," Billy sighed. This confused me. He knew their pattern better than anyone.

"Of course they're going to leave," I said.

"Yes, they'll leave. What worries me is… who they might take with them."

"What? You don't mean –"

"I've been thinking about this for quite some time now, Jacob. When they left, I was relieved of my worries for a while, but now they are back, and from what Charlie tells me, she spends a lot of time with … _Edward. _It's only a matter of time before -"

"No! That's rubbish. Bella would never let them-"

"_Let them?"_ Billy repeated with a sad chuckle. "Son, if they wanted to turn her into one of them, I'm sure there's nothing she can do about it."

He was right. Of course that filthy bloodsucker would do that to her. Take her by surprise; turn her into one of them. Then she would have no choice but to stay with them… forever. That was a fate I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, let alone my best friend. "Well then what can _I _possibly do about it?" I asked resignedly.

"I've spoken to Sam about this. We went over the details of the treaty."

"The treaty? He's not going to _eat _her…"

"Yes, but the treaty states that they cannot _bite _a human being. Bite, not kill, Jacob."

I saw what Billy was getting at. It made sense. Let them know that if they turned her, they were breaking the treaty, and we'd finish them off. Sounded like a decent idea, except for one thing…

"What if they do it anyway?" I asked worriedly. "What if they leave Forks, and then change her?"

"The treaty isn't restricted to Forks, Jacob."

"But she'd already be lost to us! She would still be one of _them."_

"Well, then you have to convince her to stop spending so much time with them," Billy stated simply.

"Easier said than done! Don't you remember when you bribed me to tell her to stay away from him, last year? That didn't exactly work, did it?"

"Then get Charlie to stop her from seeing him!" Billy exclaimed, running out of ideas.

"What, like get her grounded or something?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yes, if that's what it takes."

It was stupid, but a plan started to form in my mind. "Alright then. I'll go over there sometime this week, and –"

"No, Jacob. You will go now."

"_Now?"_

"Yes! Damn it, Jacob, this is Charlie's only daughter. She's as good as my own daughter. You go to her now, and do whatever it takes to save her. Who knows when they could decide to do it?"

I sighed but agreed. This was important, to both of us. I would warn them to back off. Just in case, I would get her into some trouble with Charlie. She would hate me for it, I was sure, but maybe Charlie would keep her safer than I ever could.

I went back inside, told the guys I had to go somewhere, and headed straight to my little garage outside. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice Leah follow me out.

"Jacob?" she called from behind me.

"Yeah?" I said, turning around automatically to listen to her.

"Why're you leaving?" she asked. Good question. I didn't owe Bella anything. What did it matter if she – no. I couldn't think that way.

_She's still your friend_

Even though she had chosen the bloodsuckers over me?

_She's still Billy's best friend's daughter. You owe him this much._

"I… have to go and see Bella now."

Leah blinked. "Oh," she said quietly. That was all she said, but that one little syllable was packed with enough power to blow me away. Her face fell and she turned to go back inside.

"Leah, wait," I exclaimed, moving to stand in her way.

"It's fine Jacob. Just go. I get it. It's not like I –"

"Leah, no!" I said, frustrated. "She's my best friend. Charlie is Billy's best friend. I promised him I'd try to keep her safe, okay. But… but that's it. She's my friend, and I'm trying to keep her _alive_ and _human_. Hey, look at me. I'm not – You can't – I – Oh, screw it." I abandoned all attempts at explaining myself. Instead, I let my actions speak for themselves.

I didn't exactly plan on doing it. Heck, until a second ago I didn't even know I _wanted _to do it. Yet there I was, kissing her. It just felt like the right thing to do. It felt like I _had _to kiss her. So I did.

"I'm sorry," I breathed as I pulled away a little. Our faces were barely two inches apart. I could feel her breath on my lips as she exhaled heavily. I _really _wanted to do that again.

She still looked pretty damn surprised. "Um, Leah?" I said uncertainly. She didn't really respond. She was looking at me in an odd way. "L – Leah? I know I shouldn't have kissed you like that, but I –" She cut me off. By kissing me.

**A/N: Okay, so I could have added a lot more, but I wanted to end it here. Yes, it's really short. Yes, I'm really evil enough to end the chapter there. Mwahaha. ****What do you think is going to happen next?**

**PS. I'm also working on L&J, and you can check my profile for roughly when to expect an update.**

******Now please, please, pleaaseee, with a cherry on top, REVIEW!**


	12. The Worst Conversation Ever

**Disclaimer: Okay, so some of the lines in this chapter are straight from the book. I don't own any of that etc etc. You know the drill.**

**Enjoy!**

I must be crazy.

Leah had kissed me. And it was the most amazing, wonderful kiss ever. I could have stayed with her, like any normal person would, and right now we would probably still be kissing. Instead, I'm riding a bike to Bella's house, to deliver a message to Bella's "boy"friend, the stinking bloodsucker.

Yeah, there must be something very, _very_ wrong with me.

Well, at least I had a plan. Sort of.

_Okay, you can do this. You can do this, Jake. You have to do this. Charlie's gonna yell – a lot – but it'll be okay._

I parked the bike right beside Charlie's cruiser to make sure it was noticeable. Not that Charlie needed any help to notice it. He must have heard the bike, because he came out of the house with a shocked and angry expression on his face before I'd even gotten off. I hardened my expression and prepared myself.

"Jake? It _is _you! I can't believe this! Why do you have a bike?"

"It's not my bike, Charlie. That's why I came here."

A look of relief briefly crossed his face, before it was replaced by concern again. "So why the heck are you driving this thing around?" he asked.

_God, what am I doing?_

"I thought Bella would want her bike back, now that she doesn't come up to La Push anymore," I said with a shrug, trying to remain calm.

"IT'S BELLA'S?" Charlie bellowed, turning beet red. I winced. Yup, he was going to ground the hell out of Bella. _Sorry, Bells. This is for your own good._

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? I NEVER THOUGHT YOU COULD BE THIS IRRESPONSIBLE! HOW COULD YOU …"

I stood there and listened with an emotionless face. No need to push him any farther.

"… AND YOU CAN BE CERTAIN THAT BILLY WILL BE HEARING ABOUT THIS!"

A quarter of an hour later, he finally let me go. I retreated into the forest after he went back inside. The bloodsucker would know from my scent that I was there. I didn't go too far into the forest. I stopped a short way up the path and leaned against a mossy tree and waited.

_Okay, Jake. Ground rules._

Start with the obvious – don't phase. I sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to break the treaty this time. But did the last time really count? I mean, I didn't really _know _they even existed when I told Bella about them.

Oh, and this was the mind-reading bloodsucker, right? So no giving anything away. Don't think about the pack once he's here. What was Sam's order? Right, don't think about our numbers. And definitely don't think about Leah. That wasn't Sam, that was just me. He didn't need to know anything right now. How good were this bloodsucker's mindreading abilities, anyway? He probably only read your thoughts if you were right in front of him.

I was considering that for a while, when I heard a car pull up. It had to be them. I could smell the leech already.

"Let me go! I'm going to murder him! _Traitor_!" She definitely wanted me to hear that. It stung a little, but I didn't particularly care. I just wanted to get this over with.

"Charlie will hear you. And once he gets you inside, he may brick over the doorway."

Good. That's what I was hoping for. Maybe if she stayed away from him for long enough, she'd be able to shake off whatever spell he has over her and remember what he is, and what he's done.

"Just give me one round with Jacob, and then I'll deal with Charlie."

Jeez, Bella, I didn't come here to fight _you_! What was wrong with her? I just came to warn the leech.

"Jacob Black wants to see _me_. That's why he's still here."

Oh, wow. His mindreading abilities were even better than I'd feared. Crap.

"Talk?" Bella asked.

"More or less."

Hurry up already.

"How much more?" Her voice shook a little. She must have been worried I'd kill her bloodsucker. No worries. I'd only do that if _he_ started it.

"Don't worry, he's not here to fight me. He's acting as... spokesperson for the pack."

Well, that's one way to put it. 'Spokesperson for the pack.' Hah.

"Oh."

"We should hurry. Charlie's getting impatient."

Yes, make this fast.

They came over and my hands involuntarily started trembling. I clenched them into fists to stop it as I shrugged off the tree and sneered at the leech. He was way shorter than I remembered.

Lucky for him, he stopped as soon as he saw me, and pulled Bella behind him. Yeah, because _I _was the one who was going to hurt her? Bella stuck her head out and glared at me accusingly.

"Bella," I said with a nod, never taking my eyes off the bloodsucker. Survival 101 – never take your eyes off the enemy.

"Why?" she asked. "How could you do this to me, Jacob?"

The sneer faded away. "It's for the best." So you won't be allowed to spend all your time with your bloodsucking monster friend.

"What is _that _supposed to mean? Do you want Charlie to _strangle _me? Or did you want him to have a heart attack, like Harry? No matter how mad you are at me, how could you do this to _him_?"

I winced. I didn't even think of that. Damn, I didn't want to _hurt _anyone. I just wanted to get your ass grounded.

"He didn't want to hurt anyone—he just wanted to get you grounded, so that you wouldn't be allowed to spend time with me,"

I glared at him. Stop reading my damn thoughts, leech.

"Aw, Jake!" she groaned. "I'm _already _grounded! Why do you think I haven't been down to La Push to kick your butt for avoiding my phone calls?"

I looked back at Bella in shock and confusion. "That's why?" I said quietly. Damn, she was already grounded. Why did I say anything to Charlie? I'm such an idiot. I was so sure it was the leech stopping her. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"He thought _I _wouldn't let you, not Charlie," he explained again.

"Stop that!" I snapped.

I put on my neutral, Just-get-this-over-with face. "Bella wasn't exaggerating about your... abilities," I said slowly. "So you must already know why I'm here."

"Yes," he agreed. "But, before you begin, I need to say something."

Great. What did he have to say to me? I shivered. It was hard being so close to the leech and not ripping his throat out. It went against all my instincts.

"Thank you," he said, and I blinked in surprise. "I will never be able to tell you how grateful I am. I will owe you for the rest of my... existence."

I stared at him blankly. I looked at Bella, and she was as lost as me. What the hell did he mean?

"For keeping Bella alive," he clarified. "When I… didn't."

"Edward—," Bella started to say, but he held one hand up, his eyes on me.

Suddenly I understood, and I glared at him again. "I didn't do it for your benefit." I wouldn't do _anything _for his benefit. I kept her alive because that's what we do. Because _I_ didn't want her getting hurt.

"I know. But that doesn't erase the gratitude I feel. I thought you should know. If there's ever anything in my power to do for you..."

_Leave?_ I thought automatically, raising my eyebrow.

He shook his head. "That's not in my power."

"Whose, then?" I asked.

"Hers."

I rolled my eyes._ Don't rip his throat out. Don't rip his throat out. What does that even mean?_

"I'm a quick learner, Jacob Black, and I don't make the same mistake twice. I'm here until she orders me away."

"Never," Bella whispered.

I made a gagging noise. That was an overload of corny-ness.

"Was there something else you needed, Jacob? You wanted me in trouble—mission accomplished. Charlie might just send me to military school. But that won't keep me away from Edward. There's nothing that can do _that_. What more do you want?"

I kept my eyes on Edward and said, "I just needed to remind your bloodsucking friends of a few key points in the treaty they agreed to. The treaty that is the only thing stopping me from ripping his throat out right this minute."

Stupid treaty.

"We haven't forgotten," Edward said, at the same time that Bella demanded, "What key points?"

Of course, the leech already knew what I meant, but Bella didn't. Whatever, he can clear that up for her later.

"Jake, what key points?" Bella demanded, once she realized that her love-leech wasn't going to elaborate.

I sighed. "The treaty is quite specific. If any of them bite a human, the truce is over. _Bite_, not kill," I emphasized.

Suddenly Bella's face turned cold. "That's none of your business," she said.

"The hell it—" but my words died in my throat. My arms began to shake again. I had expected her to be shocked, surprised, scared – anything_, _but definitely not _angry_. This wasn't just something they were planning for her; this was something she actually _wanted. _

"Jake? You okay?" she asked anxiously.

This was unbelievable. What she wanted was worse than death. To become one of them – it was insane. How could she possibly want that for herself? I didn't know how to deal with this. She wasn't the Bella I knew. I didn't understand this Bella. She wanted – ugh. What kind of sick – twisted – crazy – idiotic -

"Careful! He's not under control."

I scowled at him. "_I _would never hurt anyone."

He hissed.

_Don't phase. Don't fight. This isn't worth it, Jake. Don't be the idiot that breaks the treaty. Don't rip his throat out. Later. Just leave now, before this gets worse. _I managed to keep the shaking to my hands alone.

"BELLA!" Charlie's roar echoed from the direction of the house. "YOU GET IN THIS HOUSE THIS INSTANT!"

All of us froze, listening to the silence that followed.

"Crap."

"I _am _sorry about that," I muttered against my will. "I had to do what I could—I had to try..." For Billy and Charlie's sakes, if not for my own.

"Thanks." Was that supposed to be sarcastic?

Time to go.

"Just one more thing."

Of course the leech wouldn't just let me leave.

_What is it?_

"We've found no trace of Victoria on our side of the line—have you?"

Like that even mattered anymore. If Bella became one of them, the redhead wouldn't be able to hurt her.

"The last time was while Bella was... away. We let her think she was slipping through—we were tightening the circle, getting ready to ambush her, but then she took off like a bat out of hell. Near as we can tell, she caught your little female's scent and bailed. She hasn't come near our lands since."

He nodded. "When she comes back, she's not your problem anymore. We'll—"

"She killed on our turf," I hissed. "She's ours!" No way was I gonna let him take our kill. I had to rip _someone's _throat out, and if it couldn't be this one (stupid, stupid treaty!), I'd settle for the _other _leech that wanted to kill Bella.

"No—,"

"_BELLA_! I _SEE _HIS CAR AND I _KNOW _YOU'RE OUT THERE! IF YOU AREN'T _INSIDE _THIS HOUSE IN _ONE _MINUTE... !" Charlie didn't bother to finish his threat.

"Let's go," the bloodsucker said.

Thank God. I turned away immediately, before they could say anything else, and ran. I thought I heard Bella say my name but whatever. I just kept running. How far could the leech 'hear' my thoughts? Best to play it safe and not think about anything until I crossed the boundary. Don't think, don't think, don't think. La la la la. Don't think about the pack. Just think about how much you hate the filthy, stinking, rotten, murdering bloodsuckers. I hate how they sparkle in the light. I hate how they smell. I hate how they talk. I hate how they walk. I hate how they have unfair extra powers like hearing our thoughts.

Alright, made it over. Time to phase.

_Whoa, Jake, what's wrong?_

_Big news, guys. And not the good kind._

It took a minute for them to process all the memories I was showing them.

_Holy shit! _That was Paul.

_This is crazy. How can she actually want to be one of them?_

Questions raged in everyone's minds. When it was chaotic like this, it was hard to tell who was thinking what.

_If he changed Bella, would that mean war? _

_Sure, Jacob just went to deliver that exact message. _

_But will it really come to that? It was her choice after all. _

_So what? This is definitely breaking the treaty. _

_But it seems like it's Bella's own decision. _

_What does that matter? Our ancestors were pretty clear._

_We have to think carefully about how we will respond._

It was enough to give anyone a headache. I didn't want to think about it. Besides, I had reached Leah's place, and I just wanted to relax a bit.

_Let me know what you decide, Sam. I'm going to get some rest before my next patrol._

_Jacob –_

Whatever. I phased before I heard any more. If there was something important he knew where to find me. I pulled on my shorts, went inside and collapsed on the sofa.

**A/N: Updated! Just so you know, check out my profile for when you can expect the next update (I know I've said this before but I still get loads on messages and reviews asking when so...) and if you don't have a ff account you can follow me on twitter… I say when I'll update on there, too!**

**Now R-E-V-I-E-W!  
**

**PSF**

**x**


	13. I STILL Don't Know What To Say

**A/N: Look who's back from the dead again… Moi! Were you guys surprised? How long has it been this time? No, don't tell me, I'll just get upset with myself! It's been a while. You may want to read the last chapter or two to remember what's going on (I had to!) but they're all pretty short so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. In my defense, I have major exams in January. I should really be studying some Bio or Chem right about now, but instead I have provided you with this little wonder. Hopefully it's good!**

**Enjoy!**

"You'd think I'd get used to seeing you collapsed on our couch," said Seth as he walked inside his house, "but for some reason it always surprises me!"

"Whatever, kid. Where's Leah?" I asked.

"I don't know," shrugged Seth. "She left your place like tens minutes after you did. I thought she came home."

I sighed. "I was worried that's what you'd say. Alright, I'm off," I said, getting up.

"How are you going to find her? She's not wolf right now, she could be anywhere."

"I'll manage," I replied as I walked out of the house. I didn't even need that imprint-gravity-force thing to tell me where she was. I already knew.

For obvious reasons, I didn't phase. It was actually quite weird, running around the forest on two feet. I found my way to that same clearing (our clearing, as I liked to call it) and sure enough, there she was. I knew she heard me coming - what with the heightened senses, and the fact that I was being pretty damn loud –but her back was facing me when I entered the clearing, and she didn't turn around.

Without a word, a sat down beside her on the grass. She rested her head on my shoulder, and the silence that followed wasn't uncomfortable. It was peaceful. After a while, though, I was dying to hear her voice; I had to know what she was thinking.

"Leah?" I asked in a whisper.

She finally lifted her head and looked at me, and just looking into her eyes for the briefest second left me speechless. She gave me a half-smile and asked, "How did you know where I was?"

"It's an imprint thing," I joked. She smiled.

"So what's on your mind?" I asked her.

"You kissed me, Jake."

"Yes, I did," I said slowly, averting my eyes to patch of grass near my feet, unable to bear the intensity of her gaze. I waited for her to continue.

"Why?"

_Why? _How could I possibly explain it? I didn't even know myself.

"It's… an imprint thing?" I replied half-jokingly. She was not amused. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I don't know – I did it because… because I felt like I had to," I said quietly, feeling very stupid as the words came out of my mouth. It was unbelievably corny… but it was the truth.

She was silent again, as she processed this. Is it possible to die from suspense? At that moment, I thought it must be. From the corner of my eye, I could see that she was looking at me. For a second, I thought – or rather, hoped – that she was going to kiss me again. Boy, was I wrong.

"You _had _to? What does that even mean, Jacob?" she exclaimed in an accusatory tone. "Is it because of this ridiculous 'imprinting' thing? Or did you just want to shut me up, because I was going on about Bella?"

By now I was glaring at the patch of grass so intently, I almost expected it to burst into flames. I tried to lift my gaze, but if I looked her in the eyes, I knew I wouldn't be able to say what I needed to say. "No, I - It means that I felt like… like I was going to explode, if I didn't show you how I felt! And, as you might have noticed, I'm pretty terrible with words, so … " I sighed and gave a shrug, annoyed at myself for being so useless at explaining how I felt. "Actions speak louder than words, right? That's pretty much the best explanation I can offer. Take it or leave it."

To my immense surprise, she laughed. I was so shocked, and so relieved, that I forgot to stare at the ground. I finally looked up at her, and the sight of her laughing took away every sensation of unease.

"What's so funny?" I asked, somewhat defensively.

"You," she grinned, controlling her mirth.

"What?" I asked again.

"You're adorable, Jacob Black."

I laughed at her sudden change of mood. So, now I was adorable? "Well, I'm not going to argue with that," I grinned.

She responded by laughing and poking me in the ribs.

"If you're trying to hurt me, you're going to have to do better than that," I scoffed.

"If you say so," she said, and began jabbing at my ribs with both hands.

"Ow! Hey – Haha, that tickles a little – Hey, knock it off! What's the matter with you?" I exclaimed, trying to grab her hands to stop her. Finally, I had her hands pinned down, and she stopped fighting back. "What was that for, huh?" I demanded, breathing heavily.

"You really are terrible with words, you know," she whispered teasingly in my ear.

"Now that's not fair."

We both fell silent, and I suddenly noticed how close our faces were. I gazed into her eyes again. God, I wanted to kiss her.

"Jacob…" she whispered.

"Leah," I replied with a smile.

"Jacob… we – we have to go, now."

"If you say so," I whispered back, moving my lips ever so slightly closer to hers.

"Mom will be wondering where we are."

"Right," I muttered, leaning in further.

"It's almost time for dinner."

"Uh-huh." Now our lips were so close, they might as well have been touching.

"We haven't eaten anything all day. We really should go."

"Sure," I breathed, and she shivered as my breath wafted over her face. A brief second of hesitation followed, and then our lips were pressed together, and all else was forgotten. She wrapped her arms around my neck. My hands tangled in her wonderful, soft hair. Her legs went around my waist. I pulled her in close, and I was no longer able to think coherent thoughts.

**A/N: If any of you are still with this story (And I'm hoping most of you are!) pleeaasseee review! Sorry it's short (as always) but you guys know how I love to end it at the most… interesting places **


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